Velocivixen

@noglider - my friend is a bike mechanic and she has all the stuff including indicator dials. She stood next to me and told me step by step what to do to true my wheels in all planes. After using all her stuff, it just wasn't the same using zip ties on the fork blades for lateral Truing. It is possible that I felt the need to buy all the "official stuff" to compensate for my lack of knowledge on the topic of wheels. In this case, I think it shows.

p.s. Yes, when I'm learning something I'm laser focused. I find taking apart & reassembling bikes & their parts interesting, challenging & rewarding.

Looigi

I don't use one and rely on flipping the wheel in the stand, which works fine as long as the stand is sufficiently robust not to change alignment between flips.

markg

The side gauges on Spin Doctor adjust separately, and are held only by friction. So you cannot rely on them not moving when the wheel is flipped. There are marks on the plate you use to check roundness that you can use as centering indicators, but again that whole part of the assembly is held by on the arm. It's not quite as sensitive to bumping, but can be. Hence my recommendation for a dishing tool. For occasional use, it is an adequate stand, and mine has more than paid for itself. But I am ready to move on to something better.

upthywazzoo 

I just purchased the BikeHand truing stand and found that it didn't seem to be centered very well. I could get it centered on a 100mm hub, but then once I changed to 130mm, the center had moved. Not sure if it was due to misadjustment or poor design, but I'm glad I had a dishing tool. Despite that, I still like the stand for how solid it is, and in combination with my dishing tool and Park tensiometer, I built a pretty nice wheelset

hkhailey

With the Minoura, the dishing is already taken care of, no dishing tool is required.

davidad

I have found that the dishing tool is necessary. The yoke that holds the rim feelers can move throwing the thing off a little. I find the tool more accurate than flipping the wheel in the stand.

GeneO 

Depends on the stand. Don't have that issue with my Park, the yoke doesn't move relative to the rest of the stand.

hkhailey

After six + years of fairly regular use, I've not had this issue. I check each time I start to use the stand and it's always right where I initially calibrated it to. I also store the calibration tool in the yoke (mainly to keep from losing it) but it's there to check each time before I start.

The only real thing that I don't like about the stand is that finer threaded screws weren't used for the feeler movement. It's no biggie but being ex-Air Force, I have this thing about precision that can go a bit too far (or so my wife thinks).

DiabloScott

Boy that looks a LOT like my older Minoura. Definitely fine for home truing and wheel building if you add a dish tool. Mine is a little tough to do the rear wheel with a tire on it because of the way the wider slots for a rear hub fit in the fork - closer to the feeler gauges puts the tire a little too far into the hoop.

3alarmer 

...the ones for sale now using the old Minoura design are made of lighter materials/thinner stock.