I haven't owned a truing stand before this one, but I didn't want to start with something I'd want to upgrade in the future. I don't think that is going to be something I'm going to worry about. This stand will handle any wheel I have to throw at it. The construction is SOLID! I'm not saying I'm going to throw it around my garage or anything, but I can't imagine any reasonable person breaking this stand. I was able to true 2 sets of wheels in about 90 minutes the first time I used it. I also bought the park tension gauge which helps but maybe not 100% necessary to true an existing wheel. With a little practice I think my wheels are straighter than they ever have been and the quality of the ride is noticeable. Even a slight wobble translates into a 1x rev vibration while riding. I definitely wish I hadn't waited so long to get this tool for my home shop. If you are a perfectionist when it comes to your wheels, don't delay. Just order.
The only reason I only gave 4 stars is that I don't think the calipers are absolutely centered between the supports. This can be adjusted but I expected a dead-nuts accurate stand for this price. Of course you can get the rim straight by gauging off of one caliper and flipping the rim in the stand. If it is close to the opposite caliper when you flip the rim, you know the rim is off center. If the rim is still closer to the same caliper when flipped, the rim is centered and it is the stand that is a little off. Also, you can use a dishing gauge to verify the rim is centered.
I'm at least a casual Park Tool fanboy, so I was pretty disappointed with the state in which this stand arrived. The first issue was that paint and been slopped into a threaded hole to the extent that I couldn't assemble the stand.
That problem was resolved by calling park tool. Quickly and politely, they volunteered to send a tap to re-thread the hole and another knob (in case I'd fouled the threads on the original... I hadn't). They also threw in some Park Tool stickers, which being a fanboy, I was glad to receive. Once I received the tap (Park shipped it promptly) and re-threaded the hole, the stand went together just fine.
The next issue was that the stand was way, way, way out of proper calibration. It didn't seem to me that anyone at the factory had even tried to calibrate it (or inspect it for quality assurance). Without the centering gauge, this truing stand would have been a very expensive and awkwardly shaped paper weight. Thankfully I'd read some other reviews, so I purchased the centering gauge at the same time as the stand.
Once assembled and calibrated, the stand performs as well as I would expect a Park Tool product to perform. I'm giving two stars for the value rating because, at the price point this stand sells, it should come calibrated and ready to assemble.
HAVE USED THIS TOOL TO ALIGN MY BLADED BONTRAGERTREK 700C RIMS, REBUILD MY 1976 FUJI MIXTE 27 RIMS AND MY 1983 SCHWINN LE TOUR 27 RIMS. GREAT PRODUCT!
Expensive but worth it for the quality. Works as advertised. A must have for the cyclist wanting to keep wheels true or the beginning wheel builder. Well worth the money.
Exactly what youd expect from Park!
The tool works great. But the issue with buying it is the shippinghandling. It packaged well I would say but not well enough to sustain drops. No matter how good the initial (factory) adjustment is, since the tool is kind of heavy it might become dished when the package drops. When my order arrived I noticed damage (a hole) to packaging box. Obviously it has been dropped at some point. The tool is heavy duty one and survived the drop - no parts have been bent or damaged. But it was severely dished. Having centering gauge (1554-1) helps a lot to center the stand. Happily I ordered them together I was able to bring it back to the right state. This saved me time with dealing with customer support and shipping it back and forth. I suggest buying them along .
The adjustment bolt was too large so I had to re-tap the nut - that took about 30 minutes. The whole mechanism was poorly assembled at the factory, everything was super tight and it wouldn't center properly. I basically had to take it all apart and put it back together with reasonable clearances so it could move freely. Once re-assembled, it works like a dream
Using to true wheels and works great1
The last time I let my LBS true a wheel, they charged $75, took two days, and still didn't get it right. Yes, there are dozens of YouTube videos showing how to true a wheel while it's mounted on the bike. I wanted something better, and this is IT! I cut a piece of plywood to use as a base, bolted it on, and put some rubber feet on the bottom. This way I can true my wheels on the kitchen counter (the wife LOVES it when her man brings his tools to the kitchen!) My ONLY gripe with this thing is that it didn't come calibrated. It was badly off-center, even though there was an inspection tag with it. It would cost Park Tool $1.00 per unit to cut some kind of a templategauge out of plastic or wood and include it. They could even print an outline on the side of the box, and we could make one ourselves. The only help I found online was a YouTube video where Calvin teaches how to align the more expensive TS-4 using a wheel that you know is already properly dished. That was not helpful, because I haven't bought their dishing tool, but I got through it. You will, too. So, BUY A TS-2 or TS-2.2! It's worth every penny.
Great truing stand. Comes calibrated. The only annoying thing is that you'll have to buy a separate base for the stand as it will tip over during truing. Of course, Park sells a base but they really should just include the dang base and charge more for the combo. Anyhow, if you don't buy the base you'll have to anchor it down to your work bench with two bolts...and there are holes on the stand for that.
I like the tool as it allows one to much more easily true a wheel. However, the jaws used to gauge wheel trueness have to adjustedcentered to match the dishing of a given wheel with a wrench rather than a adjustment knob when a given wheel is not perfectly dished (and most usually aren't). Of course a wheel should be well dished but even a small dish variation requires a tedious adjustment of the stand to accommodate the variance. Note that the stand can be used to correct dishing but it usually takes much more time to correct a dish error than it does to simply true a wheel. For the (not inconsiderable) price of this stand, I think that Park should have included the centering knob of which I speak.
