rseeker

I see this for sale used at a very cheap price. I've never owned one or been hands on, I just adjusted on the bike frame. Assuming this hasn't been bent or broken, can you tell, does it look like it would do the job?

The picture isn't the best, sadly.

Thanks in advance.

Andrew R Stewart 

Sure looks like the consumer grade design from Minoura. Offered for many years by them and a few knocked off others. These work well enough as all a stand is is a wheel holder and a pointer. These are rather flexible and being light weight they tend to move about on the work bench top while using it. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Minoura-Bik...wAAOSwffBdH4GZ This is one offered on EBAY currently. IIRC the retail price of these, back in the day, was $25 to $35. Andy

KCT1986

Bought one of these back in the '80 labeled CyclePro. Have built/rebuilt 2 dozen wheels over the years with it. Trued many wheels with it. Works OK.

Like many lower priced, needs a dishing tool to get really centered wheels. Flipping the wheel back and forth gets you close though.

One of the limitations is the lower notches for the rear axle. It spreads enough to allow a 135 OLD but probably won't go much wider. Front is standard 100 OLD.

rseeker

Yeah that seems less than ideal. I see the Park Tool stand using more of a box shape for rigid arms.

Thanks for identifying it, those eBay pictures help a lot.

79pmooney

That's a higher quality stand than the one I bought in the early '80s. Mine is cruder, but stiffer. Has almost identical arm and pointer,just not qjuite as well chromed/pretty. Works just fine and I have built many excellent wheels with it. I use an equally cheap dishing tool that I modified so I no longer have to take QRs and nuts off.

As Andrew said, all it has to do is hold your wheel and provide a pointer. All the rest is gravy. (Important gravy if you are building wheels for money but for a set or two a year, hardly necessary.) If you use a dishing tool, accuracy and repeatability don't matter at all.

Ben

dsbrantjr

A truing stand has a very simple job, to hold the wheel reasonably still and provide a reference marker. That one should do fine. You could add your own dial indicator (very handy) or whatever if you need/want one.

davidad

I have had this model for over 25 years and it works. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Minoura-Wor...oAAOSw7A9dAT4c

sdmc530

I have that stand. It works fine tor truing wheels. I paid 25$ used on craigslist.....been good for my truing needs.

Jon T

I have that exact stand, also with the CYCLE PRO label. I've had it over 30 years. For the occasional full build and truing it works just fine.
Jon

Retro Grouch 

In the end all that a wheel building stand does is to give you a stable place to measure from.

Murray Missile 

I've been using the bikes fork or rear stays with the brakes mounted for pointers for years with good results. I finally bought myself a genuine truing stand last year, it's still in the box. Old habits are hard to break.

2old

I have a knock off of that stand and it works fine. AIR, since it's "old school", can't remember if it's for 29" wheels, but I'm focused on 26' now. Built and/or trued lots of wheels with it.

cpach

Sometimes relatively flimsy stands can wiggle a little when spinning the wheel initially, so you have to take a sec before assessing wheel rub. A professional quality stand does make work a little faster and can be more flexible about working with a tire on with some wheel/tire sizes, but if you're not working with commercial time constraints it's not really a big deal. Much more imporant is technique.

KraneXL

The most useless piece of equipment a bike owner can have. It is a tool for a mechanics, not for a cyclist.

philbob57

1) A cyclist who does his/her mechanical work saves some money and gets to ride more. If one relies on LBSes for mechanical work, one has to get the bike to the store, wait for the repair, and then get the bike back from the store. I live 2.5 miles from a good LBS, and I can overhaul a headset/hub/BB in less time than travel to and from the LBS, and that doesn't count the actual amount of time needed for the work to be done.

2) One can buy the above truing stand for less than the cost of truing 2 wheels, at least if the price is like I'd have to pay. If one's budget is tight, buying a truing stand is a good investment for most cyclists with a modicum of mechanical ability. (Of course, if one's budget is really tight, it would be wise to learn to use the bike itself as the truing stand. That's how I built my first set of wheels, and they worked fine for 2 seasons - and they probably worked fine for longer than that, except it was stolen so I don't know how long that first set lasted.)

DiabloScott

I've had that Minoura stand and a dishing tool for probably 30 years. I use it a few times a year. I seldom want something fancier or newer.

Also pretty nice for applying glue:



Oooh, look, a video:

https://vimeo.com/23406247

RGMN

I have that exact stand in my tool box, the Minoura branded version. Small enough to toss in the car when we travel but works well enough. You do need a dish tool like other said. It will never replace my Park TS-2.2 but it does the job.

2old

Haven't needed a dishing stand since it's easy to install the wheel and set the truing "nodules", then swap the wheel and recheck; works surprisingly well if a little archaic. Over the years I've built 10 - 20 wheels and trued countless others saving money and time while being a little "greener" as noted above. IMO, a mandatory tool for anyone with DIY genes.

Gresp15C

Some of us are amateur mechanics. And I think in general, there's a whole continuum in between "bike owner" and "mechanic," which of course depends on your aptitudes and preferences.

I believe that at the very least, being self sufficient for basic maintenance can greatly improve one's experience as a cyclist. For instance, at the extreme, taking two car trips to the bike shop every time I need a repair or adjustment would get really old, really quick. At another level, being fearless with a wrench lets me try experiments such as non-conventional combinations of parts (e.g., single speed conversions, etc.). Clearly, wheel building and maintenance is is own level of interest, but once again, with 4 cyclists in the family and a dozen bikes in the fleet, being able to take care of spoke tension and truing issues myself has saved me a lot of aggravation. For one thing, I'm less likely to let a bike get to the point where wheel maintenance becomes a job for a mechanic.

I'm not trying to be a scold, but just expressing my philosophy for what it's worth.

vmizera

Have been using this model for over thirty years. Always meant to upgrade to a Park.
However, for the two or three times a year that it is used, it has more than sufficed.
Buy it.

3alarmer 

...I've taught classes to people using that stand as the standard one for everyone in the class. They work fine for most people, who don't do all that much work on wheels anyway. AS already stated, find a dishing tool to use with it and you are well on your way in the world of wheels. I never understood why people who build two or three sets of wheels per year decide they have to have a Park.

What's nice about that stand is that it is light enough to move around, so instead of adjusting your body position to do different operations, you can just move the whole wheel and stand. Thus, if you're truing up a wheel and discover the nipples are stiff or seized, you can put the thing on the floor, and slowly spin the wheel around while you apply some sort of penetrating oil to each nipple in turn. And it folds up for storage, which is another plus.

The Park stands at our co-op got abused by so many people that the centering feature was always out of adjustment anyway. In their proper environment, and for heavy use, Park makes a good stand. Most of us don't need one.

rseeker

Thanks everyone for your perspective and thoughtful replies. There's a lot of experience on display here.

Mad Honk 

3alarmer,
I started building wheels with an old Rollfast bike stand with two thumbscrews and jamb nuts on them that were screwed into the stand at the right positions for 27" wheels and 20" wheels. Through the years, I moved to the Var stands. I probably build one hundred plus wheels per year and for me the simplicity and reliability is a necessary part of the tool. The cost for the convenience though is great. I think the latest version of the VAR is close to $1k and is way out of the price range of even a normal shop that doesn't make high end wheels. Attachments like dial indicators will drive the cost of a stand even higher, but will result in 60 mph wheels. For someone looking to just true some wheels the Cycle Pro line works just fine. Again as a young mechanic I learned to build with some of the things available to me at a price I could afford. Buy what you can afford and upgrade as needed. I find that there are thousands of good mechanics using tools from Craftsman compared to the hundred or so using Snap-On. JMHO, MH

le mans

Probably better than my antique




But is there an adjustment for different width axles?

andrea29

doens't look too stable to me