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I finally tried a bench mounted wheel truing stand after fighting with the fork trick for way too long
I've been truing wheels by flipping the bike upside down and using the brake pads as a guide for probably 3 years now, and I always told myself it was good enough. Last week a guy brought in a rear wheel off a 1995 Specialized Rockhopper that was wobbling so bad the tire rubbed the chainstay, and I could not get it straight with the bike flipped over to save my life. My coworker let me borrow his Park Tool TS-2.2 stand that bolts to the bench, and the difference was night and day. Being able to spin the wheel freely and see the rim in a fixed reference point with the feeler gauges meant I could actually dial out the hop instead of chasing it around. I got that wheel within half a millimeter of true in about 20 minutes, and the fork trick would have taken me an hour and still been off. Now I'm annoyed I waited this long, because I've probably messed up a dozen wheels over the years just from not being able to see what I was doing. Does anyone else have a cheap DIY stand setup they actually like, or am I just gonna have to bite the bullet and buy the real thing?
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wyattbennett2d ago
The part about being able to spin the wheel freely and see the rim against a fixed point is the real key here, not the stand itself. You can get most of that same benefit with a zip tie wrapped around your fork leg or seat stay and trimmed so the tail just barely kisses the rim, then you spin the wheel and watch where it rubs. Costs you nothing and it gives you that fixed reference you were missing with the brake pads. The thing is though, brake pads move and flex and you're eyeballing a gap that changes, so they're a bad gauge even when the wheel is dead straight. A cheap stand is nicer for sure, but the fork trick done right with a zip tie gets you 90 percent of the way there.
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