Wheel truing stand?

neeb

Wondering if this is something worth buying. I am not building wheels, but sometimes need to true them. I've generally always just mounted the wheel in the front fork with the bike turned upside down and adjusted the brake pads close to the rim, but in some ways that's not ideal because you don't have a reference point for degree of dishing on each side. I think I have sometimes managed to true a wheel to within a fraction of a millimetre but may have in the process altered the dishing so that it is a millimetre or two out to one side or the other... Also, it's difficult to correct for roundness, although I've managed in the past more or less just by placing a large object on the floor very close to the wheel with the bike upside down.

Any recommendations for a good stand that allows significantly better/easier truing than the above but isn't too expensive?

ugo.santalucia

For truing only get a cheap one. Also, roundness is not something you will ever need to correct unless the rim gets damaged, but at that point a new rim is the solution.
Cheap stands don't do dish, but you can either get a dishing tool or base your dish around the bike frame/forks, which is probably the best way of doing it anyway

The portable Tacx one is adequate for the job

neeb

Thanks - so is there maybe not much point in a cheap truing stand if I am getting on OK with the wheel mounted in the forks/frame and the brake blocks in any case?

The wheels I am truing at the moment were damaged in a crash a while back. I had them fixed/trued by a bike shop who said that they couldn't get the front one completely back in round, although it was only a couple of millimetres out and after riding it for a bit and replacing a slightly bent spoke (Campagnolo Eurus, so I had to order it..) it seems to be largely back into round in any case.

I've now trued it again after replacing the spoke and it is only out of round by a millimetre or less. Just wondered if a truing stand would have made this easier/more accurate.

ugo.santalucia

neeb wrote:

I've now trued it again after replacing the spoke and it is only out of round by a millimetre or less. Just wondered if a truing stand would have made this easier/more accurate.

Possibly, but if the rim is damaged you improve the roundness by having uneven tensions... on balance it's better to have a 1-2 mm bump with even tensions that get rid of the bump by having a few spokes which are on the loose side.
You need over 3 mm to notice it when you ride and it needs to be fairly localised. Remember the tyre is hardly perfect and it's got its own un-evenness, which exceeds 1 mm.
If you take a perfect wheel, fit the tyre on and look at the clearance on the seat tube while it spins and you see there isn't much point obsessing about roundness

neeb

Great, thanks. I've just pinged all of the spokes and they seem to all be pretty much at the same tension. I think I was just lucky and the rim sort of repaired itself or found its way back into shape again once it was ridden, if that's possible.

Anyway, very satisfying to have the wheels nearly as good as new again after having thought they were a write-off at one point!

on-yer-bike

If the wheel moves up and down then the brake track spreads regardless of the tyre.

ugo.santalucia

on-yer-bike wrote:

If the wheel moves up and down then the brake track spreads regardless of the tyre.

If you have 1 mm vertical, it means the pad will go up or down 0.5 mm if placed correctly, which is irrelevant

on-yer-bike

ugo.santalucia wrote:

on-yer-bike wrote:

If the wheel moves up and down then the brake track spreads regardless of the tyre.

If you have 1 mm vertical, it means the pad will go up or down 0.5 mm if placed correctly, which is irrelevant

Its half a millimeter. Paulo dont let your standards drop!