Feedback Sports Wheel Truing Station

Truing stands are one of those tools that people tend to put off purchasing only to wonder how they lived without for so long when it is finally part of the collection. Truing a wheel between the brakes or otherwise on the bike just isn’t the same. Like just about any tool, it is worth being realistic about your eventual uses and buying appropriately. The Feedback Sports Wheel Truing Station is a consumer tool meant for the home mechanic, or for the racer already toting a repair stand event to event.

The roughly $75 Feedback Sports truing stand is meant to either clamp to the top of a Feedback repair stand, or sit upright on the workbench on the included weighted base. I’ve found that it also fits on my ancient Park shop repair stand, and can imagine the handy user finding ways to attach the Feedback stand to other objects, say their hitch rack, fairly easily. It’s a relatively simple, one-sided design but don’t let that fool you into thinking it is inherently inferior to double-sided shop-style stands. The round and true adjustments slide into place and are then fine tuned with a plastic dial, allowing a degree of precision as close as anything else, and definitely within the limits of the home user. From small 16” and 20” wheels up through 29” wheels with fat tires mounted, you can fit just about any wheel with a conventional quick release or bolt on axle. The range of adjustment even allows you to true a disc brake rotor, which I’ve found useful a few times in recent memory. In some respects single-arm truing stands are easier to use than shop-style ones, with nothing in the way you have a clear line of sight and more working space with a one-sided stand. When building wheels one-sided stands automatically allow you to gauge even dish—simply flip the wheel over without moving the truing arm. If it isn’t even on both sides, the wheel is out of dish. It requires flipping the wheel back and forth, and working the quick release or tightening the axle nuts, but the practice works and I’ve built a few successful wheels this way without a dishing tool.

The Feedback truing stand is not a shop quality tool, nor should you expect it to be given the price tag. For the home mechanic, or the mechanic on the go looking for a lightweight, race-ready kit, the Feedback truing stand is ideal. Anything save for some high end mountain wheels and select other oddities fit, and the design allows full access to the spoke nipples even if the tire is mounted. There is no question that a shop quality truing stand is more up to daily abuse than the plastic knobs and fixtures on the Feedback stand, but I’d be the first to recommend a shop or even daily user to look towards a more robust, and pricier, piece of hardware. A truing stand is a key addition to a home shop, and in my opinion the Feedback truing stand is a solid choice for all but the most serious users.

Check out www.feedbacksports.com