Wheel truing

[bvibert]

So broke a couple of spokes on my rear wheel. Not that big a deal, I've replaced them on several occasions before. I always had rim brakes in the past though, which I used as a make-shift on bike truing stand, since I don't have a real truing stand. I fooled around with using a dial indicator I got at work before, but could never get it mounted up right. Recently I found a nifty setup in the garbage that looks like it'll do the trick though (one upside to the company down-sizing, they throw out a lot of cool stuff). Still not as ideal as a real truing stand, but it should help get the job done. I haven't gotten a chance to actually true the wheel yet, just had time to set it up before we had to head out this afternoon. I expect it'll work fairly well.

Any other wheel truing hacks like me out there?

 

[Beetlenut]

Just took my kids Mtn bike to the LBS this morning after his friend fell on it an bent the back wheel pretty good. Charged me $5 bucks to true up the wheel on a stand and adjust the gears. Can't beat that! :razz:

 

[bvibert]

No, I guess you can't beat that. I like to work on my own stuff though, and I'm impatient, I don't like to wait for someone else to do it.

 

[o3jeff]

I don't have a fancy set up like that, I just use a crayon to find the high spots.

 

[bvibert]

I used the above setup yesterday for the first time and it worked great! Way easier than using rim brake pads. It was easy to adjust between checking lateral and axial run-out too, so that was a bonus. I checked the dish by measuring the distance between the rim and the seat stay on either side.

 

[andyzee]

Been there, done that. Just don't forget you need to throw an indicator on the outside as well to make sure the wheel isn't out of round.

 

[bvibert]

Been there, done that. Just don't forget you need to throw an indicator on the outside as well to make sure the wheel isn't out of round.

That's what I meant when I said it was easy to use to check axial run-out.

 

[andyzee]

That's what I meant when I said it was easy to use to check axial run-out.

OK, missed that, guess you got it covered. Nice setup.

 

[Marc]

Never used a dial indicator, never had one. My quick n dirty wheel truing set up has always consisted of c-clamping a screwdriver to the seat stay so the head of the screw driver is close to the rim.