Truing stand opinions

@huskerdont 151890 wrote:

I’m looking to pick up a truing stand. Usually default to Park tools lately for quality assurance, but am wondering if it’s really worth it to pay an extra $140 for a Park TS-2.2 when something like the Feedback Pro *looks* to be of good quality and gets good reviews. Either one would be better than putting a tire-less rim on the bike and truing against the brake pads, but I don’t want to buy something that doesn’t last or really do the job. Opinions?

I’ve owned a Park TS-2 for 22+ years. It’s solid, and I love it. I had to buy extenders for when I started doing fat bike wheels, and I had to get a rebuild kit a few years ago, but if you’re good to it, you should be able to pass it onto your kids (if you have any).

I also have the older Feedback Pro truing stand also, and I don’t like it as much. It’s the older one, and the prongamabobs were loose and wobbled a bit. I got it because I wanted to have something that was easy to attach and bring with me to races when I brought my workstand. It works fine for that, but I prefer building wheels on the Park.

For me, the dishing tool and tensiometer are almost as important and make building wheels easier.

If you want to go cheap, you can velcro something onto your frame, like a mini tripod I had to use when I built my first fat bike wheel and the hub wouldn’t fit in the stand

Jury Rig Truing Stand by ricky d, on Flickr

I’ve had both. I like the Park and to me it’s worth the extra $140. (I sold my Feedback Pro after buying the park.) I bought the stand calibration “tool” (piece of metal) and do not use a dishing tool. I calibrated the stand initially and have checked it periodically, but it hasn’t needed adjustment. Perhaps simply using the caliper is not quite as accurate as pulling out the wheel and checking with a dishing tool, but honestly this has built them dished within any tolerance I can discern (and I wouldn’t care it if it was off by 1mm since I’m building disc-brake wheels — but if the dish is off at all, it’s by less than 1mm). This saves significant time in wheel builds. The plastic covers on the calipers are also nice for not gouging carbon rims. In terms of the quality of the tool, it’s definitely worth the extra $140, but if you’re only going to build a few wheelsets over the life of the tool, it’s probably not going to pay for itself. I’ve built a couple dozen wheelsets now, probably; I’ve built some wheels for others, but having an expensive stand forces me to build myself lots of wheelsets Building wheels is almost never cheaper, but it’s been a lot of fun; there is nothing I enjoy more in bicycle “maintenance” than wheel building.

Anyway, things to consider:
– Will the stand work with the axle standards you plan to build? Not sure how that works with non-QR on the Feedback Pro; that was before I switched to thru-axles. (There are adapters for the Park. Maybe newer Park even comes with those?)
– Will the stand fit the wheels you plan to build? Primarily you probably care about hub (and rim) widths. If you’re thinking of building a 36″ unicycle wheel you might also care about rim diameter (but 36″ probably won’t work on any stands).

If you’re not building wheels, the Feedback stand (with adapters, if needed) works just fine.

@huskerdont 151929 wrote:

Went with the Feedback Pro. For $85 and for my purposes, seemed the best option right now. If I ever start building wheels, I can do like hozn and replace and resell.

I’m looking forward to your Feedback feedback. I asked for but did not receive that stand from Santa this year.

I have a Park TS-6 truing stand for 20+ years and recently purchased a Feedback Pro truing stand. I did so because I needed a better way to true disk rotors.

Initial impression of the Feedback Pro is that it’s easier to use than my TS-6, it is pretty well built and quite stable with a heavy solid base. Compared with the TS-6, the Feedback Pro is more compact and has more clever thinking in its design, along with included thru-axle adapters for future proofing. While it might not be my pick if I build wheels for a living, but for a shade tree bike mechanic like me, I prefer it over the TS-6.