Hey, sorry about the slightly misleading title on this one. I am currently a student working on a graduate level design project concerned with, as the title says, creating a more intuitive and efficient method of both truing and building wheels. The current iteration targets a rework of the spoke wrench. Our group feels that current tools are very limiting in their use and design, often only working on a single style of nipple, failing with poor condition nipples, and providing a poor ergonomic set-up. Additionally, we believe a simple method of testing the spoke tension can be incorporated into the tool as well as a rudimentary tool to speed up truing.

The goal of this post is to gauge a community interest in such a tool before too much time and effort are put into a product that may be unwanted. If a tool like this seems of interest, feel free to comment, or send me a PM. We will be gauging interest based on a ratio of views to PM/positive comment. If you could care less, comment or carry on your merry way.

Thanks for the help!

UPDATE:
A couple people have asked for a little more detail, and I should have provided it to begin with, my bad.

The current concept (that's all it is at this stage) is a spoke wrench that can grip a variety of nipples, including rounded out ones. It would have a more ratchet style, as opposed to the finger-twist usually seen on wrenches. Possibly we would include methods of checking the spoke tension/provide live feedback on truing. However, the design should not be bulky and cumbersome to use, the class is primarily focused on user centered design.

Feel free to critique/suggest ideas as you see fit. Thanks for the help so far!

Final Thoughts:

Thanks everyone for your response. From the feedback we have received here, it seems like there isn't very much interest in an improved spoke wrench. However, many of you seemed to view building as a more improvable process than truing. While a number of our group has trued wheels, none of us have ever built one. We will be following through with the consistent feedback regarding actually going out and building a wheel (could prove to be a fun few days as we each try this out.) Again, thanks, your responses kept us from developing a worthless product, which is the lesson trying to be taught by the class.

For those of you interested (and those who don't trust my purpose) the class is called Advanced Product Design at the University of Colorado Boulder (want more info, Google it). Sorry, but I'm not about to provide my real name and picture to a forum online.

Separately, the tools cost about $5.00 and $60.00, for the tension meter and spoke wrenchl I'm assuming your combo tool would the same or less?Some things to consider: There are already multi-nipple-sized spoke wrenches available, and a failing nipple (read rounded edges) can usually be solved from the back with a screwdriver if necessary. The size of a combination tool would likely hinder more than 1/4 turn of a spoke wrench, unless you've found a clever way to read the tension in the spoke.I would like to know which audience you're trying to address, not to be blunt. A person who can build a wheel would likely prefer the traditional spoke wrench with tension meter separately, unless it were significantly better for the price.If you're building an electric powered, wrap around the nipple, driver, that would be neat; if it has the ability to clamp to a nipple if desired, that would be even neater. The cost of such a tool would likely price itself out of the market, however.

That's why you're students. Maybe when you get older you won't make a forest out of a few trees?

To KBentley:
Our target market is shop/amateur bicycle mechanics, leaning probably more towards the amateur end of the spectrum. The clamping to a nipple then ratcheting is probably the leading idea, unless we can come up with a cheap tension tester (looking rather hard). Thanks for the feedback, every opinion helps.

To Bill:
The goal of the class is to redesign a user experience that we found frustrating. Personally, I've always thought truing was poorly executed, but that's probably due mostly to my lack of experience. I totally see why you think this problem is overblown, and this is precisely why I'm doing this market evaluation. Thanks for the feedback.

If someone comes up with a tool that is truly better, for this or anything else, of course I'd be inclined to use it. Hard to say anything about this idea specifically without details or hands-on experience with the tool.

Here's one:
Bicycle wheel Truing machine OBELISK | Bohemia Machine Development
Probably costs more than $60. There are others.

I would say that there is little interest in what you have described. Maybe if you explained or showed your product in a little more detail.

Good luck to you.

A great place to start.

Wheelbuilding book for building bicycle wheels

When I started wrenching bikes, one of the first tools I bought was a sort of nipple multi-tool, with sizes to fit all nipples. It was heavy, and kind of clunky. Then a friend gave me a gift of a set of Park nipple wrenches: each one for a specific nipple size, nothing more. I now use them exclusively. The feel of each wrench is perfect and they have no excess bulk by virtue of not being designed to be universal. Sometimes in the trades, having a "one-size does all" tool is not superior, and having highly specialized tools to do one and only one thing properly is more desirable.

I also don't understand why a ratcheting spoke wrench would be desirable, since truing and build require very small, metered adjustments which are often consistent across all spokes. This requires counting revolutions. If you don't keep track of how much you've threaded the nipples, you're not going to wind up with a very true wheel with even tensions. The nipple driver in its basic and very elegant form already addresses the issues of counting nipple revolutions by way of its offset rotating handle. If you can improve on this, maybe you'd be onto something.

I doubt anybody wants a ratcheting spoke wrench.
Often you have spoke wind up and have to go a bit beyond and then back off. A ratchet would just make this beyond cumbersome, since you would spend more time resetting the ratchet for the other direction.
Keep in mind, the "lowly" conventional spoke wrench gives excellent tactile feedback.

You SERIOUSLY need to build a few wheels first before reinventing the process.

Engineer but not wheel builder response...

I can think of several ways of doing spoke tension. You could measure torque at the nipple. This isn't great since the result depends on how good the threads are and how sticky any lubricant is. It would be ok for new wheels. You could measure strain, which would require something built into the spoke to be measured. You could measure frequency, which feels promising, but is sort of the same as a tensiometer only more complicated.

Crescent wrenches stink but I'm sure I've seen a ratcheting clamping version advertised at Christmastime with the magically adjustable electric screwdrivers and orbital multi tools. Or maybe what you need is a tiny pipe wrench.

The only benefit a ratchet could provide is the ability to turn a nipple one or more turns without removing the spoke wrench. Truing a wheel usually involves turning spokes 1/4 or 1/2 turn.

Just what we need. Training students to design $800 toilet seats.

This.

This is why a full set of combination wrenches is better than one crescent wrench.

This was the first thought that popped into my mind when I saw "ratcheting".

The approved way of preventing spoke windup is to tighten a quarter turn and then immediately back off an eighth of a turn (as an example) without removing the wrench from the spoke. I don't see how this could be done easily with a ratchet deal.

On the positive side, I am always eager to see improvements; and really do hope you come up with something good.

There is no question that if you build a better mousetrap, people will buy it. Often, in cycling, people will buy it whether it's better or not!

And there is so much tactile feel involved in fine-tuning spoke tensions. For example, you can sense spoke windup when you're tightening using a tool that enables proper feedback. The Park wrench offers just enough leverage to be able to tighten a nipple without excessive effort, but not so much leverage that you wouldn't be able to feel that 'moment' when spoke windup ends and the nipple starts tuning.

These tools have evolved over a century of wheel building. As a previous poster said, probably the best thing a student who wants to 'build a better mouse trap' can do is to learn to build wheels and build a few sets. Learn the artistry. Then think about what's lacking in tool design. It seems like the student is being asked to try to find a problem where they might not be any.

What you propose sounds very interesting but I'm not sure it's obtainable or will do what you intend. You will have to excuse the cynicism expressed here because the spoke wrench and wheel truing have been around for well over 100 years and, if there were a significantly better or easier way to do it, particularly an affordable one, we're pretty sure it would have been developed by now. That's not to say it may not be possible but I, for one, won't put too much of my own money on that bet.

One thing that MIGHT work - if they could be made to clear each other - would be a full wheel set of spoke keys that clamp on to the nipple and stay there through the whole trueing process. You spend maybe two minutes setting them up - which'll also give the lube of your choice some time to work itself in if it's an old wheel you're working on - then you can go from spoke to spoke w/o having to move the tool.

Could be some limitations like wheel size and spoke count due to clearance issues.

Prep and clean-up takes longer, but actual work goes faster.

Another tool I'd be interested in is something that'd do a better job of removing permanently seized nipples.
It usually happens to aluminium nipples, so it's a nice and soft metal to attack.
Maybe something like a slender hole saw with a guide.
Goes in from the tire side of the rim and cuts out the nipple flange and the part of the nipple body that's inside the rim wall.
Usually, the rational approach is to cut and replace the spoke if the nipple is seized, but I can see some possible situations where spending a few minutes on removing a nipple and saving a spoke would make sense.
Might be faster than removing a cassette/freewheel/brake rotor for instance. Or you don't have a matching replacement spoke available.

Just clamp on a vise grip pliers and unscrew.
It'll rip them off in seconds if they don't spin.
No need to cut a spoke.

Doesn't always work. Have had some alloy nipples that just wouldn't come off. A good enou grip would only wind the spoke up into plain scary territory. Couldn't clamp the spoke hard enough to prevent turning w/o gouging it. Eventually managed to torch enough off to get the remains to release.

Hmmm:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKLkr2hM524

Wheel truing is like any other semi-skilled exercise. Once you understand the system, you can do it rather easily.

I like the universal ratcheting nipple tool idea. Maybe you could also focus on a learning method that puts wheel truing theory in easily understood terms. Like maybe a comic strip like those M-16 comic book cleaning manuals for US Army soldiers they published in the 60s.

You need a better vise grips.
Mine "scores" the nipple so well, it tears apart easily.

This being the mechanics forum, these guys are all pro's. Some of them have built hundreds of wheels.

As an amateur mechanic who will replace spokes and attempt minor truing I like the concept. If the tool will make it easier, and also substitute for some of the skills and knowledge of the pro's, I'd want one.

I like the idea of it displaying what the tension is. Going by feel and sound, the amateur can only be approximate and can't really tell how right his reference is. I'd also like the tool to grip the spoke while turning the nipple - I don't know if that's a feature that you're envisioning but it would be handy.

Something else that would really be useful, if the thing could automatically measure rim to hub distance and display a +/- number, to get a feel for how out of round it is. And also, feedback on how out of true the rim is at the spoke. Do that, and I'd want your tool.

Having a spoke wrench integrated with a tensiometer makes no sense to me. They are separate functions. You shouldn't be just checking the tension of the spoke you just adjusted. You need to recheck the tensions on all the spokes after adjusting just one spoke. The whole wheel needs to be treated as a dynamic system, not a collection of isolated components.