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I've had a Roger Musson homemade jig for many years, but it was built for 26" wheels and its a faff setting it up each time I use it (and unstable now it's on a load of plastic packers to jack up the height).
Looking for something better and of course the range goes from £20 up to the lovely looking DT Swiss at £1000+. I've had some success recently with really nicely made stuff from Aliexpress. Are any of the wheel jigs on there a well made bargain?
This looks simple and solid for £40, this better for £85
Has anyone bought any of these and compared to stuff from UK suppliers?
I got the Pro one in a sale, easy to set up, folds away, all wheel sizes/axles… I’m sure the aliexpress ones are fine, but I’d rather buy UK!
Bike Tart have the Pro one for a good price.
I've got a old planet x/ on one with feelers gauges if you are interested?
Similar to this, but less blue, more Gauges to how you how out to true something is and more used.
Cheap cheap if you can collect from Nottingham
Cheap+ postage if not
Get a park ts2 or later versions if you can. Really solid and nice to build with. Easy to repair and still lots of spares available.
This looks simple and solid for £40, this better for £85
Has anyone bought any of these and compared to stuff from UK suppliers?
I have the "better" one. It's a really solid piece of kit. Only criticism I would have is that with 29" wheels it doesn't have enough height\clearance for larger diameter tyres if you're just looking to quickly true a wheel. Deflating the tyre has been good enough with any tyre I have. Worst case you'd have to pop the tyre off.
I bought it because there aren't many truing stands that would fit 157mm hubs. This one does.
I had a basic Park stand before this. This one is far better quality.
Hope you don't mind a slight thread highjack, but any recommendations for a spoke tension meter?
I can't justify near £100 for the Park Tool TM-1 Spoke Tension Meter
It's more out of curiosity and to get a rough idea as to whether I'm in the right ball park with the tension more than anything. For instance, a truing stand with a micrometer gauge is pointless for my truing skill level a present!
I've got the Park TS2.2 is the sweet spot really, I got mine for £160 as a marketplace bargain.
The AliExpress one looks pretty good for the money and better than the Park TS-8 which is pretty low-rent. There are a few clones of the Park TM-1 spoke tension meter about - plenty on Amazon or again AliExpress if you’re happy to wait in order to save more money.
don't mind a slight thread highjack, but any recommendations for a spoke tension meter?
Bought one of the AliExpress digital ones. Proper bearings and decent quality
How often do you build a wheel? I do maybe a set a year, plus repairs, so I just do them all in the frame. Little bit of measuring, little bit of cable tie faff but it basically works just as well. It's not so much the cost as the storage, it's one less big lumpy tool to find a place for (and knowing how I operate, any time I wanted it, it'd be buried behind a ton of other stuff)
Hope you don't mind a slight thread highjack, but any recommendations for a spoke tension meter?
I can't justify near £100 for the Park Tool TM-1 Spoke Tension Meter
It's more out of curiosity and to get a rough idea as to whether I'm in the right ball park with the tension more than anything. For instance, a truing stand with a micrometer gauge is pointless for my truing skill level a present!
I bought a tm1 AliExpresshttps://a.aliexpress.com/_EIqreR k" target="_blank" rel="noopener">copy for less than £10. I figured actual tension didn’t matter - I’ve just taken a reading off a new wheel and build to that. It’s definitely made my trying/spoke replacement a lot better as I’m trying to get all the spokes at a similar tension.