So, what stand do you guys use? I’ve decided I need one ASAP because it costs more to have wheels laced up around here than to just buy the stand and do it myself. Tools that pay for themselves after one use = golden.
Should I go for the cheap-O Park one, the nice Park one, or some other brand entirely?
What kind of spoke wrenches do you like? The one I use now is crap.
I have a cheap-o spin doctor from performance. I don’t recommend it. It works alright, but not great.
At ye olde shop they have the nice Park ones. I liked those a lot.
Everybody always talks up spokeys. I’ve used em a little, but I wasn’t blown away.
i have a spin doctor too, i had an amazon gift card laying around and needed to spend the money on it. it’s by no means perfect but i havent used anyhting else
I’m in the same boat. It’s ok, but off hand I can think of at least three things that would make it better.
edit: the spindoctor stand.
I’ve had my Park TS-2 going on 18 years.
Bike island has them at a good price with free shipping
http://bikeisland.com/cgi-bin/BKTK_STOR ... ProdID=511I like Park spoke wrenches as well. The others that look like park have not held up.
I have heard from a (just a, not more. but I do trust him somewhat) mechanic-friend that he finds it significantly harder to get wheels into vertical true (round) using anything but a park pro truing stand, making them the best option. It’s longer arm that the calipers sit on I guess, makes it easier to true a bigger part of the wheel.
On a different note, how are you going to learn to true wheels? Or do you already and how did you? I have tried to use the internet, but to little avail- I still pretty much suck at it, although I am better than I used to be. any advice?
[quote=“DDYTDY”]I’ve had my Park TS-2 going on 18 years.
Bike island has them at a good price with free shipping
[/quote]
Talked me into it.
[quote=“sam”]
On a different note, how are you going to learn to true wheels? Or do you already and how did you? I have tried to use the internet, but to little avail- I still pretty much suck at it, although I am better than I used to be. any advice?[/quote]
You just have to do it… and go slow.
the park stand is a lot better than anything else I’ve used but its like 6 times the cost of my stand too. Personally I find it hard to justify for home use since cheaper ones will get the wheel just as true you’ll just spend a little bit longer fiddling with the stand.
[quote=“sam”]I have heard from a (just a, not more. but I do trust him somewhat) mechanic-friend that he finds it significantly harder to get wheels into vertical true (round) using anything but a park pro truing stand, making them the best option. It’s longer arm that the calipers sit on I guess, makes it easier to true a bigger part of the wheel.
On a different note, how are you going to learn to true wheels? Or do you already and how did you? I have tried to use the internet, but to little avail- I still pretty much suck at it, although I am better than I used to be. any advice?[/quote]
shit. i typed a reply to this and lost it somehow.
anyway, if you have a truing stand, put a junk wheel in it. if you don’t, put the wheel in the front fork of an upside-down bike. spin the wheel… pay attention to any wobbles it has.
pick a nipple/spoke on the drive side of the hub and mark its location with a sharpie or something. if it’s a front wheel you’re using, just pick a spoke that’s on the side of the hub that would be on the driveside of the bike.
turn that nipple one full turn clockwise. now spin the wheel… watch how the trueness has been affected to the area of the wheel that borders that nipple.
now turn that nipple one full turn counter-clockwise. it should return to roughly the same state as it was before you touched it.
now turn that same nipple another full turn counter-clockwise. spin the wheel… see how it now wobbles in the opposite direction than what it did when you turned the nipple clockwise?
turn that nipple back a full turn clockwise so you are back to how it was before you touched it. now repeat the same process with a spoke that attaches to the non-driveside of the hub.
this should be a good start towards understanding how to true wheels. now what you need to practice is the finesse aspect of it. you will be making very small adjustments to multiple spokes in order to fix wheels that are out of true. this is not something anyone can tell you how to do… you just have to take your time and make small adjustments. truing and wheelbuilding are really fun things to do in front of the TV, IMO.
I fourth the recommendatoin of a Park TS2. It definitely costs more, but when you factor in the lifetime of usability and aggravation-free dependability, that just kinda evaporates. Plus, they hold their value well if you ever decide to get rid of it. You just need to figure out some way to hold it up—i clamp mine in a bench vise but others mount them on stools so you can build wheels and watch tv at the same time.
I also really recommend getting a tensiometer. I just built up a wheel with one for the first time, and I must say it really takes a lot of the voodoo out of it. Maybe i’m just getting better but that was my quckest and chillest wheelbuild to date.
Whatever spoke wrench you use, the ones with four sides are easiest on your spoke nipples. They sort of wrap around all four corners and you pop them on to the nipple from the top instead of sliding them on from the side.
i use park spoke wrenches and an old fork in a workstand.
if im doing a rear wheel, i just throw it in the frame that its going into.
or i do it at the shop and use the nice expensive park stands.
-j
I have an older Park PCS-1 trueing stand and a Minoura dishing tool. It’s been serving my wheel building needs for 20 years.
I bought a cheap truing stand and it sucks pretty badly. I wouldn’t have imagined how much more difficult it would it to build wheels but it is really horrible, and I don’t know why? My first set of wheels I played with every night after work for a week and couldn’t get them right. Then I took them to my LBS and I used their Park and got them finished in about half an hour. It really made a lot of difference. Again, I don’t know how this is possible, you’d think that any old thing that holds a wheel (including a fork) would work, and does work. But for some reason it is harder for me, an amateur, to get good, fast results using it.
That said, there are some cheapish stands that work quite well, I believe. And I’m sure some people can true a wheel using a stick and a pocketknife. But if you’re starting out don’t buy the one that I bought
[EDIT] +1000000 on the tensionmeter!!!
I have the cheap Park one, that a buddy gave me when he upgraded. It works, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Agree with everyone else who said get the Pro.
I have a Pedros spoke wrench that I bought for some weird reason that I can’t remember (like needed a spoke wrench RIGHT NOW!) and I love it. Really great spoke wrench.
park TS-2 ftw
it is actually the only truing stand made.
Dragging this one back out to see if anyone has used or what people think about this: http://www.morningstartools.com/R2OC_Tech.html
It seems like a micrometer at the end of a rod that attaches via QR.
I’ve always been weary of the single arm truing stands, but the park pro is expensive.
I use whatever’s at the local bike co-op 
That is for truing the rotor, but it looks ok.
no the “pad” slides up the rod (lol) and you can true the rim too.
