Wheel Truing Stand

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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Vaya
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Joined: 14 Sep 2012, 3:46pm
Location: Midlothian

Wheel Truing Stand

Post by Vaya »

After being told the it will be a 4 week wait for my wheels to be trued at my LBS, and as this is the second set I have needed doing this year as well as the front wheel off my commuter being in need of a true (and as it is a 700c disc I do not have spare and so can not wait 4 weeks!) I have decided that i should at last teach myself how to build, ot at least repair my own wheels.

I have built both bikes that I use as well as others and this is the last part of bike building (apart from frame building - one day I will learn!) that i am unsure of. I have built one wheel before, it turned out ok but was never used much - a very quick attempt into fixed wheel riding...

Now I understand and am aware that there are many ways to true a wheel without using an actually stand and that you can also build your own, but I do like owning the proper tools especially when it comes to something like wheel building - I have tried the bodge job approach and would like to try the 'proper' approach. (I am aware that not everyone will share this view).

Normally when it comes to buying tools I would rather go for quality over cheapness as I like to avoid having to buy twice on tools that I often use.

So with that in mind, does anyone have any wheel truing stands that they would recommend?
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gaz
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by gaz »

Mines a Minoura, I think the current equivalent is a True Base.

I learned to true wheels and do rim transplants in an upturned frame, using the Minoura's much easier. I now do very occassional full wheelbuilds and I'm happy with results around +/-1mm out of round , +/- 0.5mm out of true. I can achieve that with the Minoura and a bit of patience. On my model the centring gauge is a little unreliable but that seems to have had a bit of a design change.

Mine came with a wheel dishing tool and spoke key, the dishing tool's OK for q/r hubs but not suitable for use with nutted axles. The spoke key that came with the kit isn't up to a Spokey which remains my weapon of choice.

I've no experience of using a workshop quality set up.
High on a cocktail of flossy teacakes and marmalade
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Mick F
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by Mick F »

I've got a Minoura too - and it works well.
Unless I was building wheels on a constant basis, I see no reason to buy anything better/professional.

I've built half a dozen pairs of wheels over the recent past, and was really only self taught. It's not rocket science, all you need is a good eye and skill of hand with a good spoke key. The spoke key is the "key". I have one of these:
http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/sp/road-t ... uddtool350

Best way to learn IMHO is to pull apart a wheel completely, then rebuild it whilst looking at another for the "pattern". Make sure you get the valve hole in the right place!
Mick F. Cornwall
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geomannie
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by geomannie »

I have built both bikes that I use as well as others and this is the last part of bike building (apart from frame building - one day I will learn!) that i am unsure of.


Hi,

I pretty much came to the same conclusion as you about a year or two ago and booked myself onto a one day wheel building course at Edinburgh Cycles. I didn't do so with the intentions of serious wheel building but to give me the confidence to maintain and true wheels properly. This the course did excellently.

Like you I then had the problem of finding a good wheel building stand. Cheap ones were, well "cheap", expensive ones just the opposite. I solved the problem by buying the ebook The Professional Guide to Wheel Building by Roger Musson http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php. As well as useful wheel building instructions, the book contains the plans for a simple but very robust wheel truing stand made of MDF. The design may look cheap but its solid and I have trued more than a dozen wheels in the last year. The book is £9 and the cost of the MDF and bolts is not a lot.

We have about 10 bikes in the house and whenever a wheel goes wobbly I now just put it in the stand and within a short time, the wheel is true. Much time and much money saved.

Cheers

geomannie

Edit: There is a nice picture of a DIY stand built to the above instructions, but in wood rather than MDF, at http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.ph ... own-wheels (scroll down).
geomannie
stephen
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Joined: 13 Apr 2007, 8:22am
Location: London

Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by stephen »

gaz wrote:Mines a Minoura, I think the current equivalent is a True Base

+1

I'm surprised no ones mentioned this http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html so far. I used that and "the bicycle wheel by Jobst Brandt"

Stephen
gordy
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Joined: 2 Feb 2008, 10:29pm

Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by gordy »

I've got a Park Tools stand.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... tAodB0cApA

I've previously use a Minoura and the Park Tools one is better by several orders of magnitude. It's a lot of money, though.

I see that Park Tools do a "home mechanic" version which is a more sensible price.
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Tail End Charlie
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by Tail End Charlie »

Another recommendation for the Roger Musson book. It explains everything really clearly.
Make a truing stand as he shows and off you go. Mine cost peanuts to make and has been used to make many wheels over the last five years and has trued countless others. It can get very addictive.
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Vaya
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Location: Midlothian

Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by Vaya »

Cheers for all the replies.

I have invested in the Roger Musson's ebook and I do like the truing stand design that he suggests, it does look alot sturdier that what is available on the market. The only issue for me is that I lack the tools and ability to build one.

I don't suppose anyone that has already built one would like to be commissioned to build another one for me? (Drop me a PM - I'm serious.)

I like the look of the Park tools one but it is ver expensive and I personally think the home mechanics version is way over prices for what you get. It looks like the best option is Musson's design and to set up two dial indicatior units to help get the wheel true.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by [XAP]Bob »

From the above linked forum wrote:Image
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
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531colin
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by 531colin »

Vaya wrote:....................... set up two dial indicatior units to help get the wheel true.


I would recommend you steer clear of dial gauges.
I think the most important things to get right building wheels are these things, in this order.....
Spokes stress-relieved
Spokes tight
Spoke tension reasonably uniform, as a compromise with the wheel being reasonably true

+ or - 1mm is quite good enough if you are building wheels for yourself....+/- 0.5mm is really pretty good.....you can see 0.5mm against a pointer.

I have had the odd wheel in the past where I have been chasing a small lateral error for too long. Finally I get bored and mark the "buckle", spin the wheel for a bit and Hey Presto! the "buckle" is in a different place.....I can only guess there is something going on in the hub.

I think if you set up dial gauges, you are setting yourself up for trying to build wheels to a greater degree of accuracy than is necessary, or even possible. Rims aren't always as straight as you might like, hub flanges aren't always drilled accurately......
spokesman65
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by spokesman65 »

I would recommend a read of Gerd Schraners "The Art of Wheelbuilding" it's a little easier on the newbie wheel builder. Happy wheelbuilding.
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pete75
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by pete75 »

531colin wrote:
Vaya wrote:....................... set up two dial indicatior units to help get the wheel true.


I would recommend you steer clear of dial gauges.


From Rose versand website. Their touring wheels are around half the price of similar component wheels from a well known British touring bike specialist. It's unlikely in the extreme German wage rates are lower so using button clocks likely speeds up the building process.

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ukdodger
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by ukdodger »

I have the Park stand mentioned above. It works fine. I've built about ten wheels on it. Be aware though that the centre position of the centre arm on it is changable. I only discovered it when I noticed that in the closed position (ie with the centre arm upright between the two outer arms) that one of the outer arms was further away from the centre arm than was the other outer arm. You can actually loosen the bolts and move the centre arm right or left. It's worth checking.

For me it beats the bike frame/rubber bands/pencil approach.
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531colin
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by 531colin »

pete75 wrote:........From Rose versand website. Their touring wheels are around half the price of similar component wheels from a well known British touring bike specialist. It's unlikely in the extreme German wage rates are lower so using button clocks likely speeds up the building process.........


Doesn't stack up, Pete. You can only possibly use a dial gauge when the wheel is just a few mm off true....dial gauges won't make you faster at lacing up, tensioning, stress relieving, balancing the tension, dishing, etc......even if dial gauges were the best thing since sliced bread (they aren't....for wheelbuilding, anyway) you could still only use them on a part of the process that might represent 5 or 10% of the whole time taken to build wheels.
Last time I knew Spas prices exactly, wheelbuilding charge was £45 a pair....that's nearly a third of the price of a pair of Deore wheels, not half the price of a pair of XT wheels.
I have used Rose, for example for Shimano cassettes that Madison don't bring into the UK, Rose are a good outfit, but their competitive pricing doesn't come from using dial gauges.
Brucey
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Re: Wheel Truing Stand

Post by Brucey »

FWIW (and on the basis of having built hundreds of pairs of wheels myself) I agree with Colin.

Rose sell their wheels for less money than they will sell you the parts to build their own, and the parts are not particularly expensive to start with. That leaves less than nothing to pay the wheelbuilder with, does it not?

So what kind of quality you should expect for that... is anyone's guess.

cheers
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