tsappenfield

After truing a few wheels (5), I think I'd like to buy a wheel truing stand to do this on my own. There are lots of Park Tool stands on eBay, more than one model, and a lot of variation in price. What would be a good entry level stand for someone who likes to restore bikes from the 60's, 70's, and 80's primarily? What about a tensiometer? What about a dishing tool?
Tsapp

habilis

You can tape a pencil to one of the fork blades so that it it comes close to the edge of the wheel rim. It saves the cost and clutter of buying a new tool.

HillRider

Any of the Park stands, even the most basic, will work well but don't trust the "self centering" feature on their upper level stand unless you are willing to carefully align it frequently. A dishing tool is worthwhile if you are building wheels with some frequency although one can be improvised for infrequent use. It's more reliable than trusting the stand's centering ability. Tension tools are very useful for new builders although experienced builders will deny the need for them (sort of like torque wrenches).

RubeRad

Have a spare fork? Make your own.

spoiledrotten

Now, that's a great idea! When I suspect mine of being out of true, I'll have to try that.

pdlamb

I think my stand is a Performance/Nashbar rebranded Minoura, picked up on sale some time ago. Works great. Anything with adjustable guides and a steady base will do fine.

Park tensiometer is the least expensive I've seen, and plenty good enough. (Some people don't use tensiometers, peace.)

I got a dish tool when I was feeling rich and foolish. It's more work to use that than it is to take the wheel out of the stand and flip it, and not significantly better.

fietsbob

someone showed a picture of 3 Zip-ties as a truing guide. on the road I used the brake pads ..


i have an old TS-2 kicking around here.. 25 years or so..

never needed a tensiometer (Used pitch and feel ) and flipping the wheel over lets you eyeball most dish issues

RubeRad

That won't work so well if you have to untape, slightly move, and retape the pencil all the time. A little better if you attach the pencil with a rubber band, but still not that easy. I recently tried to use a bamboo grilling skewer and a rubber band to assist truing, and found it very ineffective.

I'm used to truing with rim brakes, just keep gradually tightening the brakes, touch up tension where they rub, until you're satisfied, then back out the brakes a little bit.

But now that there are two disc brake bikes in the house (wife&my new mtb) that is not an option.

Others have suggested zip ties, I will try that too. Zip tie around the seatstay or fork, cut off the long end to an appropriate length, rotate to move the tip closer in or further out, note by sight or sound where the rim touches the tip of the ziptie.

RPK79

Any time I see a Park Tool stand go up on the local FB bike trading group it is sold in seconds. Literally seconds.

habilis

My standards are much, much lower than yours. So far, I have only used Method #2 in your post on my rim brakes. I don't keep tightening the brake gap either, I just judge the gap by eye, and try to stop the in-and-out movement of the rim. When it looks reasonable, I quit. If I actually used the pencil (haven't yet), I wouldn't have the pencil touching the rim. No re-positioning needed in that case. As you can guess, my pads are not within an eight-inch of my rims - more like a quarter-inch.

Discs would probably drive me nuts with the finer tolerances required. However, I'd think it's the rotor, not the rim, that must be perfectly true.

For the wheel-builder, the truing stand may be a must-have. For the guy who trues a rim-brake wheel once a year or less? Maybe not.

RubeRad

Wow, that's pretty hard to do!

Yes, for braking purposes, but still you don't want a radically out of true wheel. The two mtb I recently bought from bikesdirect each had (or soon developed) 1 completely loose spoke in the rear wheel, like it took a few full turns with the fingers before the nipple even started to apply tension to the spoke. That resulted in a wheel so bad you could feel it while riding. So while I was dealing with that, I figured I'd try to get the new wheels as true as possible (so I can hopefully ignore them for the rest of the bike's life).

Absolutely agree. For that guy a truing stand is an unnecessary luxury that he may want to pay for or not, depending on how much money he has laying around, and how much he would enjoy using it.

davidad

I have an older Minoura stand, Park dishing tool, Wheelsmith tensiometer and Park spoke wrenches. The Jobst Brant and Gerd Schraner books are also nice to have.

RoadGuy

Look on Craigslist for a used Park Tools TS-2. They are bulletproof, but if you do find a way to bend or break it, parts are available from Park Tools.

You should be able to get one for $50-$100, depending on how old, condition, and what accessories come with it.

Moe Zhoost

I built my first one out of a piece of wood for the base and angle iron for the arms. It worked fine although was a bit difficult to set up due to varying hub widths. If all you plan to do is build or true a wheel every five years or so, it's ok to go with DIY, but if you plan on building more than a few sets per year and see yourself doing this for many years to come, you should consider buying a pro model. Of course, because of the demand, you could buy used and then sell a few years later and break even.

obed7

I have the feedback sports stand and it does the job for me.
I have the park dishing tool, I think I even know where it is at.

Homebrew01

I just use the brake pads as guides most of the time. I use my truing stand only when building wheels, or if I come across a wheel with major problems.

A temporary pencil guide sounds fine for disc brake bikes, needing a tweak.

_ForceD_

I'll endorse the Park TS-2 also. Especially if you're going to be truing frequently for rebuilds. The taped pencil, zip-ties, etc...those are great "MacGyver" tools for unexpected, infrequent fixes. But for doing it on a regular basis you'll want something a bit more sturdy and easier. If you have the space, you can leave it set up in your shop area. As mentioned above...the TS-2 does seem to get just a bit out of calibration from time to time somehow. But I check and re-cal mine on my own. Using a level, I open the fork until they are perfectly vertical. Then, using a ruler, I hang a weighted string down directly in the middle of the forks. Then I raise caliper arm and adjust the caliper to make sure both jaws touch the centered string at the same time. For double checking I then open the caliper jaws all the way to make sure they touch the fork stands at the same time. If anything is out of cal, it's easy to loosen, adjust, and then tighten.


Dan