Minoura Pro Truing Stand

Price Paid:  $34.00 at Performance

Favorite Ride:
Anytime it's not raining

Bike Setup:
'02 Colnago Master X-Light. Chourus/Record mix, Mavic OP 32 DT db 14/15/Chorus hubs

Summary:
I got really tired of messing with wheels that were always going out of true. I just had a rear wheel rebuilt and 3 days later I hit a rock while descending and knocked it out of whack. I did not feel like dragging my wheel to my LBS and waiting a week or ten days until they got around to looking at it. I decided I was going to start truing my own wheels than and there.

The Spin Doctor is the Performance brand of the Minoura Pro Truing Stand. I got it on sale for $34.00 and using my Performance Team Points it knocked it down to $28.00 (not including tax or shipping).

The stand arrived via FedEx a couple days later. I was getting ready to go for a ride. I opened the box and pulled out the stand and unfolded it. There is no assembly, it's a no brainer. I pulled of my rear wheel and went to work. It took about 5 minutes to get my wheel true, just as good as my LBS would do. This is a good stand for a home mechainic. The only thing I do not like is the calipers for the lateral truing slide back and forth and it would work a lot better it they were idexed or theaded. But I guess you could rig it up to do that. You kind of have to guesstamate on the distance between the rim on each side, there is no precise method. But it works good enough for me.

Truing wheels is easy, jump of the Park Tool Company website and they have a section about wheel building a truing.

This was not my first choice, but I was suprised that it was as good as it was.
This is good for a home mechanic, but not a professional stand for a bike shop.

Strengths:
Good quality, well made, stable, not a piece of junk, easy to use.

Weaknesses:
Calipers for lateral truing slide instead of being indexed or theaded (this is the only thing I do not like about it).

Similar Products Used:
Putting my bike upside down and using the brake pads as calipers (not a good method!

Price Paid:  $35.00 at Nashbar

Favorite Ride:
Any ride that climbs

Summary:
Stand now comes with calibration guide so dishing should be accurate (I haven't adjusted dish on a wheel on it yet).

All three adjusters (left right and diameter) are fine threaded enough to allow small adjustments easily.

So far it seems like a basically good design, though it's a little too flexible.

Strengths:
Price is right, it sets up and folds up quickly, it stores in a small space, it's basically easy to use (but see Weaknesses).

Weaknesses:
The manual really, really sucks. It's obvious that the folks at Minoura are too arrogant to hire a native English speaking person to write or at least edit it. It reads like a bad home electronics manual. Hopeless.

The stand is flexible enough that if you're resting your hand on one of the uprights it affects the accuracy of the the truing adjusters.

Similar Products Used:
None, I've trued wheels on the bikes.

Price Paid:  $30.00 at Used

Bike Setup:
Late 80's Giordana road frame. Campy Chorus 10-speed group.

Summary:
Bicycle snobs will always disparage other products in favor of Park tools, but unless you build wheels professionally, this truing stand is fine. You can even do complete wheelbuilding. If you are doing a little bit of wheel work for just your own bikes, this stand is perfectly fine.

Strengths:
Self centering works well, and means easy dishing without special tools or procedures. Both radial and lateral truing can be done. Pretty light and compact. Inexpensive.

Weaknesses:
Special alignment tool costs extra, and you pretty much have to have this if you are doing something more substantial than just touching up the lateral trueness. The "caliper" (or caliper-like device) used for lateral truing requires that you slide the pins on each side independently. Notice I wrote that they slide; it would be better if they were at least threaded (but you can easily upgrade this yourself for under 2 bucks). Radial truing gauge is also adjusted by a friction-type system: You just have to move it a little closer by pivoting the whole guage.

Because none of the gauges have precise adjustment systems, you always have to worry about that little bit of static friction right before you want to move something, or sticking points as you are trying to fine tune. It takes a lot of patience and a little bit of extra time (tap-tap-tapping lightly until you can get things to just move a little), which is why I wouldn't reccommend this to a professional. But at some point the precision of any wheel is related to the limits of your patience, and I pretty easily reached my limit of less than half a millimeter on all dimensions.

Similar Products Used:
Park TS2. Easier to adjust, but I didn't spend but maybe a few more minutes adjusting the Minoura, and the time I would have saved is not nearly worth the over $100 price difference.

Price Paid:  $40.00 at Performance Bike

Summary:
I purchased this as the Performance Spin Doctor. For the money and the amount of use I give it, I have been very pleased. It holds the wheel tight enough, is stable, and I am able to true the wheel withing .5 mm. Radial truing is more than adequate as well. I agree that the centering gauge is not very useful, even when calibrated with the optional (and over-priced) alignment tool. Use a dishing tool for best results.

Overall, a better value than a Park TS-2 for the kind of home use I give it.

Strengths:
Price. Accuracy.

Weaknesses:
Centering gauge. Optional alignment tool is over-priced.

Price Paid:  $46.00 at Performance Bike

Bike Setup:
2001 Fuji Roubaix

Summary:
You get what you pay for. This truing
stand is easier to use than the brake
blocks but not much better. The wheel
isn't held in the stand securely.
The centering gauge doesn't work at all.
You need a dishing tool or else your
wheels will be all messed up.

It's cheap but it sucks so much it's not
worth your time. I think I wasted about 10
hours more than necessary truing a particular
wheel. Radial truing is also clumsy with
this tool.

Strengths:
Compact. Folds up.

Weaknesses:
Wheel isn't held securely or in the same
position. You always have to worry about
whether it's held tightly or not.

Similar Products Used:
Park TS-2