I finally compared wheel truing stands after years of using a zip tie method

I always used a zip tie taped to the fork to true wheels on my night shift breaks. Last week I borrowed a Park Tool TS-2.2 from a shop in Portland and dialed in a bent rim in like 15 minutes. The difference in accuracy and speed is nuts when you can actually feel the adjustments without guessing. Has anyone else made the jump from a homemade setup and regretted not doing it sooner?

2 comments

2 Comments

patp7917d ago

Wait wait wait, you BOUGHT a truing stand off some guy on Craigslist and it came with a BENT spoke wrench? That is WILD. I can't believe someone would actually sell a bent spoke wrench with a stand like that's just part of the deal. How did you even use it without ruining your nipples? I had a similar thing happen with a used torque wrench I got from a pawn shop and the click mechanism was so far off it would just keep clicking forever and I never trusted it again. Honestly though the fact you stuck with it for a whole Saturday and figured it out is impressive. Most people would have thrown the whole setup in the trash after the first hour.

the_wyatt17d ago

You know what's funny, I spent years doing the zip tie trick on my mountain bike wheels during lunch breaks at a shop I worked at back in 2015. Then I finally broke down and bought a used Truing stand off some guy on Craigslist that came with a beat up old Park Tool kit and a bent spoke wrench. Took me a whole Saturday to figure out the difference between actually feeling the rim move versus just watching a zip tie wiggle around. Now I can't even look at a wheel without wanting to throw it on the stand and fix a wobble that nobody else would notice.