Views - this wheel trueing stand?

[Brucey]

depends on the envisaged usage, budget, space available.

cheers

[Sweep]

depends on the envisaged usage, budget, space available.

cheers

Usage as above brucey, budget up to £80 or so if thing worth it, no problem for storage space, space in use - between me and telly on floor.

All the best

[alexnharvey]

Clothes pegs on the fork make a simple indicator.

[horizon]

Clothes pegs on the fork make a simple indicator.

I'm quite happy with my £65 purchase but would be a bit miffed if a clothes peg was just as good. Any thoughts about advantages of machine in OP?

[Paulatic]

[
I'm quite happy with my £65 purchase but would be a bit miffed if a clothes peg was just as good. Any thoughts about advantages of machine in OP?

A clothes peg or zip tie Is accurate enough for my needs. The advantage of buying is you’ve saved yourself 30-60 minutes work knocking something together and it looks like a 'proper job'.
I have a friend who bought the machine you have a few years ago. I assembled it and showed him how to use it. I don’t believe it’s seen the light of day since

[Brucey]

[
I'm quite happy with my £65 purchase but would be a bit miffed if a clothes peg was just as good. Any thoughts about advantages of machine in OP?

A clothes peg or zip tie Is accurate enough for my needs. The advantage of buying is you’ve saved yourself 30-60 minutes work knocking something together and it looks like a 'proper job'.
I have a friend who bought the machine you have a few years ago. I assembled it and showed him how to use it. I don’t believe it’s seen the light of day since

I think this underlies the right way to approach this; it isn't to dream of building wheels (without having done much of it) and then to use this dream as an excuse to buy a fancy tool of some kind; if you really want to build wheels you will find a way of doing it with minimal tooling. Having done this you will be in a good position to judge the merits or demerits of various tools as they apply to you. It is a bit like trying to judge what kind of bike you might like without having ridden any bike otherwise....

The merits of a PT type stand have been explained at length in earlier posts. They apply (if they apply to a cheaper copy at all) largely to those working in a busy shop, not making/truing a few sets of wheels a year.

Regarding sitting a wheelbuilding jig on the floor (whilst you 'watch TV'); none of them are meant to be used like this. For a start most of them have the pointers in the wrong place. It is also perhaps to misunderstand the wheelbuilding process; most of the work is done outside the jig and when the wheel is in the jig it requires a good deal of your attention. Using a jig with soft pointers, and after a good deal of practice, you can just about do some good without paying very close attention to what you are doing. But this is not likely to happen if you are doing with a couple of sets of wheels a year.

cheers

[horizon]

it isn't to dream of building wheels (without having done much of it) and then to use this dream as an excuse to buy a fancy tool of some kind; if you really want to build wheels you will find a way of doing it with minimal tooling. Having done this you will be in a good position to judge the merits or demerits of various tools as they apply to you. It is a bit like trying to judge what kind of bike you might like without having ridden any bike otherwise....

I agree with this. But sometimes you have to take the plunge. I'm not intending to build a wheel but I now have three bikes where back brake issues require the wheel to be trued. And in any case a lot of it ATM is experimentation and learning. The impression I'm getting is that this tool is over the top and, as you say, this tool doesn't true wheels - you do. If it all works out well, the tool will certainly pay for itself. But not only that, it means that minor things get done which wouldn't if it meant taking the wheel to a bike shop. It also means I don't have to have the bike itself in the kitchen!

The OP took the sensible step of asking the forum about the merits of the tool. if I were reading this thread first, I would probably have bought a simpler, lighter one. But I'm really only engaging with this thread because I had already bought one and so the learning by reading the responses has been doubly valuable.

[Sweep]

Have decided that when I need to do this I will buy the Unior one as recommended upthread.
Thanks samuelD

[mercalia]

the difference comes between workshop use and hobby use; the appropriate tools for each purpose are likely to cost different amounts, need different amounts of maintenance/setup, need different storage conditions/space, will/won't tolerate highly intermittent (vs daily) use, and ultimately work differently.

The wheel truing stand in the OP is clearly based on the PT design, but is a fraction of the cost. I haven't used one of those but I would be very surprised if it is the equal of the PT one in every respect; my guess would be that it is not as functional and/or not as durable in some respect(s), and you won't be able to buy spare parts if they wear or break.

The PT design takes up a lot of bench space and is something of a PITA to set up but once it is set up you can build wheels that are correctly dished to within ~0.5mm or so, and do it fairly quickly. It isn't that difficult to adapt the design to incorporate soft pointers if you prefer those.

cheers

how accurate does it all have to be? .5mm seems overkill? How consistant are rims?

[Mike Sales]

if you really want to build wheels you will find a way of doing it with minimal tooling.

A lecturer at the local tech was rebuilding a Morgan car (I think) with spoked wheels. He came to me with the wheel and a spoke key he had made to fit. He had rebuilt it, but it needed truing. I put the axle end in a vice vertically and build up odd bits of metal on the bench up to the rim as a gauge. Worked fine.
He later told me he checked it with some fancy kit and it was amazingly (to me!) true. I forget the figure but he was well pleased.

When I later managed to break the vice he brazed it together for me and returned it with the mend neatly ground flat.

[Vantage]

I took delivery of one of them Tacx Exact stands yesterday and set about truing my rear wheel today. Your eyes should be on the wheel Sweep, not the telly!
It flexes about a fair bit if used rough but as long as it isn't manhandled, it's perfectly adequate for general diy building/truing etc. Got my rear wheel to within less that 0.5mm after it had been bent to over 5mm of sideways movement. And I'm no expert. NIce that it folds away back into it's box for storage.
I've seen reviews from people who complained that it is too wide to accept front hubs and there are bodges on youtube to get around that, but I found that the legs are more than pliable enough to bend in and clamp the wheel without resorting to bodges. For 40 quid I can't complain.

[NetworkMan]

Wondering if I should give wheels a first try this winter. Has anyone looked at Rose Bikes offerings?
Minoura FT-1 seems to get good reviews there, Rose bikes cheaper one less so. I think Xtreme is another of Rose's own brands isn't it?
https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/bike-access ... ing/truing

[mercalia]

well I built the only pair of wheels I will ever build ( I hope) in situ using a spoke blutacked across the forks for roundness and the brakes for lateral adjustment. I used a cardboard "C" tool from Mussons book for dishing. But then I had a known good pair of Spa Wheels to have for comparison. I found having a Parks tension meter far more useful for knowing when to stop tightening and for consistancy purposes than a special truing stand. I am quite happy with the results, which have received a lot of battering ( given my weight ) over about 3500 miles so far mainly on rough tracks, without the need to tweak the spokes, bar I did adjust the dishing once.

If you dont have a tension meter how on earth do you know when to stop tightening? In my case the spokes I used were different to the ones on the SPA wheel so plucking the spokes and the note you get not a good quide?

Certainly comparing "my" wheels with the original 1-Down ones, the Dawes ones were rubbish, lacking in tension consistancy for one

[Sweep]

Your eyes should be on the wheel Sweep, not the telly!.

Duly ticked off vantage - I guess I meant sitting in the comfy chair in my front room facing the telly - my default seat there. Rather than in my leaky garage.

I've seen reviews from people who complained that it is too wide to accept front hubs and there are bodges on youtube to get around that, but I found that the legs are more than pliable enough to bend in and clamp the wheel without resorting to bodges. For 40 quid I can't complain.

Seems strange that something should be made, especially by that company, that needs to be, er, adapted, to take a front wheel.

Can you post a pic of this offending item?

[Sweep]

Wondering if I should give wheels a first try this winter. Has anyone looked at Rose Bikes offerings?
Minoura FT-1 seems to get good reviews there, Rose bikes cheaper one less so. I think Xtreme is another of Rose's own brands isn't it?
https://www.rosebikes.co.uk/bike-access ... ing/truing

Yes I think xtreme is a Rose brand - I've seen it applied to a variety of stuff from a variety of products from various manufacturers which I have seen elsewhere.

I was also looking at Rose's offerings earlier today but wasn't convinced. Have decided that many of the stands with the jaws/pincers like the front of a stag beetle are perhaps rather wobbly/prone to twisting, and that all you really need is a pointer on one side.

Did you use google translate on some of the comments on their wheel stand? Some weren't too flattering.

Hence my conversion to the Unior one recommended upthread. I have a couple of Unior tools and am impressed by the way they design and make things. Looks like a simple beast, little to go wrong.