For All Repairs and Maintenance Tasks on Your Bike: The Bike Work Stand
Whether road bike or MTB - full-fledged work stands hold the bike at a height at which you can work on it comfortably from different sides while standing.
Usually the bicycle is held at the seat post or frame tube in an adjustable and rotatable clamping device. The wheels and cranks can then be moved freely to facilitate work on brakes and gears. You should look carefully at the clamping device, since they provide significant differences in handling.
There are also repair stands where the bike is supported on the bottom bracket area. Sometimes the front wheel has to be removed and the fork is fixed on the mounting stand.
Foldable work stands are recommended for hobby mechanics and for the road, as they are easier to store when not in use and easier to transport. For professional workshops, on the other hand, there are also repair stands that are firmly screwed to the floor.
A space-saving and inexpensive alternative can be a mounting arm for bolting to a workbench or wall. The prerequisite is, of course, that the workbench or wall can support the weight of a bicycle.
As simple alternatives there are also bike stands that only lift the rear wheel and thus make work such as adjusting the gears easier and also simplify parking the bicycle.
Essential for the Construction and Maintenance of Wheels: The Truing Stand
If you want to repair wheels that are out of true, or if you intend to re-spoke wheels from scratch, then you need a truing stand.
The basic composition
In simple terms, most truing stands resemble an upside-down fork into which the wheel is clamped at the hub. The installation width can be variably adjusted to the usual dimensions. In addition, there are also asymmetrical or even 'one-armed' truing stands, which are particularly space-saving. In both cases, compatibility with the thru-axle hubs should be considered. For some models extra adapters have to be ordered.
Simple truing stands are usually less torsionally stiff and therefore require more attention and patience when truing your wheel. In addition, the wheel must be turned around on many models to reliably check the truing.
High-quality models on the other hand and those for professional use are heavier and bulkier, but therefore much more solid and precise.
If you want to be able to compensate for bumps in the rim even with the tire mounted, you should make sure that the truing stand has enough space for this option, since it is not the case with many models.
In Search of Upward and Lateral Irregularities of the Rim
Now that the wheel is clamped in the truing stand, what happens next? To find irregularities on the rim, adjustable sensors made of metal or plastic are used on simple models. If you place them close enough to the rim, you can see the distance fluctuate if the rim does not run smoothly. Somewhat better is a springy plastic tip, which is gentler on the rim when touched and avoids scratches.
On professional truing stands you will often find dial gauges instead of simple probes, which allow for much more precise and targeted work.
Precisely in the Middle with a Centering Gauge
Not every truing stand allows the rim to be reliably aligned centrally to the hub. Repeated turning can help here but is cumbersome in the long run. With a so-called centering gauge it is relatively easy to check whether a wheel is spoked correctly and whether the tire will later run through the center of the frame or fork. For this purpose the gauge simply compares the distance from the hub axle to the rim on both sides.
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