Bicycle Mechanics - Single Arm Truing Stand

My wife brought home a 'single arm' design truing stand instead of the standard two-sided stand that I was expecting. There is another guage below the lateral arm to use in adjusting the radial component. The wheel connects on one side only. I've tried it briefly and it seems to be okay. Overall, the product is sturdy and well designed.

Question: has anyone else had good/bad experiences with a single-arm design?

I find them a touch slower to use than standard truing stands + dishing tool but otherwise fine.

I made one out of an old fork. Cut the one leg off and drilled a hole for a feeler screw in the other. Clamped steerer in vice.
Not near as good as a professional Park two legged stand with centering caliper. But plenty good for home use.
Your stand (MEC?) should do fine. All you need to do for accurate centering is to flip the wheel around.
Or you could find an old fork, make your own stand, and exchange your stand for one of those cool 'Canada' jerseys and a dozen or so Clif bars. :beer:

[snip] Your stand (MEC?) should do fine. All you need to do for accurate centering is to flip the wheel around. [snip]


Indeed it was MEC. You could tell by my avatar's location alone? Cool intuition. :thumb:

the heck with the stand lets talk about the wife!! she brought home a truing stand !! phenominal! stupendous! what is your secret? sounds like quite a Lady. good on ya.

Much better access to the spokes. Important if your tension equalizing which is an involved processes. Easy to take on trips. I use mine in the horizontal position to sometimes mount tires and always use it to seal a tire tubeless with Stan's fluid for the first time. Our lbs mechanic who builds very nice wheels uses one.

Al

Indeed it was MEC. You could tell by my avatar's location alone? Cool intuition. :thumb:

I have the same one...works pretty well for me.

I made one out of an old fork. Cut the one leg off and drilled a hole for a feeler screw in the other. Clamped steerer in vice.
Not near as good as a professional Park two legged stand with centering caliper. But plenty good for home use.
Your stand (MEC?) should do fine. All you need to do for accurate centering is to flip the wheel around.


I use a fork for truing as well, but I left both legs. I lke to be able to push the rim sideways to relieve spoke tension when I'm tightening spokes. I wouldn't use a one sided stand for that reason.
As far as flipping the wheel to center, I found this on the Park website:

"Note: While the TS-2 is designed to provide automatic dishing of the wheel, imperfections in the shape or condition of the axle or locknuts can affect the dish reading, as the imperfection is magnified significantly by the distance from the hub to the rim, where the actual reading is taken. Because of this, for precision work, a dishing tool such as the Park Tool WAG-1 or WAG-3 should be used to verify final adjustments."

The best truing stand is the wooden one in Roger Musson's e-book. It's the simplest to set up, and it has the best indicators.

em

the heck with the stand lets talk about the wife!! she brought home a truing stand !! phenominal! stupendous! what is your secret? sounds like quite a Lady. good on ya.

This thread is useless without pictures!

em

Just buy an inexpensive dishing tool and go for it. No matter what stand you use you will most likely need the tool.

Beware of the Minoura folding dishing-tool. I had one. It seized-up tighter than all get-out. Never to budge again. I got three readings off it before it went catatonic. Planned obsolescence?

I now use the Park Tools WAG-3, and I'm quite satisfied. It's easily worth the couple extra dollars.