5 DIY Truing Stands
 

This is a pretty neat blog post tht came up recently discussing five methods of making your own truing stands...no need to shell out the big bucks, eh?

http://bikehacks.com/5-diy-truing-stands/

I was going to say...can't you just flip the bike upside down and do the same thing that they said in the first option with the forks in the vice...

Great article though, if I ever have a need to true my wheels more then once or less per year then I will remember to look at the article again for tips on making a stand. However, I don't really abuse my commuter or race bike so they stay pretty true with normal use anyway.

That is the way I've always done it as well. :thumbup:

If I ever get a spare fork, then I'll definitely do it that way.

I've never actually trued my own wheel.. is it a long process?

I only did a minor truing after replacing a broken spoke on my race bike and it didn't take much time at all.

the idea is just making it not wobble and for most applications a rough truing is all it takes, the only exception being race bikes going 40+mph. But for most people the zip tie around the fork of a bike flipped upside down works just fine.

::EDIT::

O, I also meant to ask. Is there a good way of truing a wheel that has side to side wobble as well as the unbalanced wheel type wobble?

Do you meant to say the rim is bent?

yea I think that's the problem. I'm not sure though as it's my roommates bike so I'm not sure what happened to it. It does appear that it's bent. Is there a way to fix it or is it just recommended to get a new wheel in this situation? I've actually never done this so I've never had to fix anything like it before. He is on a tight budget to get his bike fixed so I was just wondering if there was a way to avoid buying a new wheel assembly.

If the rim is indeed bent I would advise on a new one, but I don't really know what you're describing so it could just be that the wheel is really out of true.

I have a cheap $35 trueing stand, it works well, other then the fork has no adjustment, insted it's slightly springy you need to use the skewer or axle nuts to hold the wheel in place otherwise it slowly wiggles out, but it's light and compact folding almost flat so I have it mounted on a small piece of plywood and hang it on the wall, if I didn't have it then I would either get one of the dial indicator holders that clamps on to a standard fork, or do what I did befor and head down to the bike shop and use their stand, doing it that way is cheap and leaves my shop less cluttered.
I've personaly built 4 wheels, and re-spoked a few as well, my last one was a 700c rim on a 3 speed hub and bolt that on to a racing frame, but mostly I use it for when I get a bike from the dump that has a broken spoke I can replace the spoke and true the wheel, once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy, taking 15 minutes or so, building a whole wheel can take a few hours, it's pretty easy as long as you have a decent attention span for repitition.