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The old timer in Reno who taught me to true a wheel by feel instead of a stand
About 6 months ago I picked up a used wheel truing stand for $85 off a guy in Reno, thinking it would finally fix my sloppy builds. Then a retired shop owner named Gus watched me fight a wobbly rear wheel for 20 minutes and told me to just flip the bike over and use the brake pads as my guide. He showed me how they did it before stands were cheap, spinning the wheel and listening for the rub at the pad. My stand now sits in the corner collecting dust, and honestly my wheels have been straighter since. Curious if anyone else here learned the brake pad trick or if I'm just old school now.
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martin.riley1mo ago
The brake pad trick works fine if you're in a pinch, sure. But calling a truing stand a waste of money because one old guy showed you a shortcut feels like a stretch, your mileage may vary though. A stand lets you see lateral runout and dish in a way a brake pad never will, and once you're chasing a wheel that's out more than a couple millimeters the pad method turns into guesswork. Also, pads only tell you about side to side wobble, they say nothing about tension being even, which is what actually keeps a wheel from going out of true again next week. It's a good skill to have in your back pocket for roadside fixes, but ditching the stand completely sounds more like a cool story than a real upgrade. Been around bikes a while and I've never met a wheel builder who tossed their stand for good.
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