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Performance
Spin Doctor truing stand
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Submitted by
Bernard
a Cross Country Rider
from NH
Date Reviewed: February 24, 2005 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Price Paid: |
$35.00 | | Purchased At: | Performance | | Strengths: | accurate, Cheap and portable | | Weaknesses: | truing mechanism+indicators could be sturdier, does not clamp wheels very well. | | Similar Products Used: | Park TS-2. My fork with brake pads. Park TS-7 | | Bottom Line: | Well this is a good stand i will say that, its very accurate. I can probably get wheels true within .3 or so mm. I like the centering thing, though i usually just flip the wheel over to check dish. But the markings are a good overall indicator. You have excellent adjustement. With the TS-7 it has very difficult to adjust, that product is beautifully made with the steel and all but the design is total crap. Spin doctor has a nice design but its not beefy in the least! The plastic components which make up the arms to the indicators flex around a lot, which can be a pain. But i suppose you get used to it. I would say the only thing that seperates this from the much more expensive TS-2 is that the TS-2 is much sturdier, and the auto centering. It will go faster with it, but its not worth buying that for most of us. This unit is nice and portable, which is nice if you have to go somewhere you can slip it in a bag easily. My biggest gripe is that it does not hold your wheels well, and you're not supposed to use quick release, although i do it a anyways but lightly. I am very fond of this stand despite what i have said, i would not minded paying a little more but some sturdier parts, its very cheap though so thats nice. 4 stars, if it was not for the weakness issue i would give it 5. | Value Rating: Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Andrew Lundberg
a
from Baltimore, MD USA
Date Reviewed: July 23, 2004 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$39.00 | | Purchased At: | Performace | | Strengths: | It's stable, the arms auto-center, and the vertical and horizontal guides work well. This standr also fold flat for storage and transport. | | Weaknesses: | Some parts are plastic (the fork ends, the U that holds the horizontal guides), so you can break it (especially if your truing methods involve large hammers). | | Similar Products Used: | Park TS-2, front and rear brake pads | | Bike Setup: | Many bikes, now I just gotta see if these forks go wide enough to true a Schwinn Stingray 20" x 4" rear rim with it's equally mutantly wide hub. | | Bottom Line: | I worked for years in a bike shop and have built and trued many wheels on a Park TS-2. I've also lives for too long away from the shop truing wheels on a bike by starinbg far too hard at brakes blocks. Using this stand is so much better than truing a wheel on a bike.
As for dishing wheels, this stand has fork arms that self center, but the large plastic U which holds the guides can be slid to center on the hub. The vertical guide (a flat plate the lets you adjust rim height or runout) is marked with lateral measurement lines. If you flip the wheel in the fork and the rim is now displaced to the side, you know just how far off you are on the dish.
Granted, I have to pull off my tire to do a good truing job with this stand (for height), but that's pretty much true for a TS-2 as well. This will true your rims as well as a TS-2, and much better than I could do on a bike. Unlike a TS-2, you could brake break this stand if you dropped it badly. On the other hand, this stand is lighter, and folds flat for storage and shipment. | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
weather
a Cross Country Rider
from iowa
Date Reviewed: January 20, 2003 | | Duration Product Used: | 1 Year | | Price Paid: |
$40.00 | | Purchased At: | performance, stupid | | Strengths: | trues | | Weaknesses: | doesn't auto-center, but no dishing gauge included. needs light touch. extra care when putting wheels on. | | Similar Products Used: | park | | Bike Setup: | duh | | Bottom Line: | you get what you paid for. this is trueing stand stripped to its bare bones--literally. lateral trueing, radial trueing. that's it. need to dish a wheel? get a dishing gauge (20 bucks for a cheap one i think). quite a few plastic parts where the stand contacts wheel, so be careful not to break those when you mount the wheel. the stand flexes a bit, but a light touch will get your wheels true within +- 0.2mm. not bad for fourty bucks. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
steve
a
from Mountain View CA
Date Reviewed: January 20, 2003 | | Favorite Trail: | Page Mill | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$40.00 | | Purchased At: | Performance | | Strengths: | Cheap | | Weaknesses: | Flimsy | | Similar Products Used: | Park Consumer Truing Stand | | Bike Setup: | mountain and road | | Bottom Line: | I ended up exchanging this Minoura for a Park consumer stand. The Minoura stand was too flimsy for anything but fixing a slight wobble. | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Loch Miwa
a Weekend Warrior
from Crestwood, IL
Date Reviewed: January 13, 2001 | | Duration Product Used: | Less than 1 month | | Price Paid: |
$40.00 | | Purchased At: | www.PerformanceBike.com | | Strengths: | GREAT PRICE!!!
Reasonably well made for "home mechanic" types.
Auto-centering for trueness and roundness. | | Weaknesses: | Can't clamp QR, hand tighten only.
Not sturdy enough for pro use in a bike shop. | | Similar Products Used: | Compared with Park TS-2 and TS-7 | | Bottom Line: | If you are planning to use a truing stand a lot, buy the Park TS-2. However, if you will only be using it to periodically check your rims and will occasionally need to replace a rim, this is a good buy. It is cheaper than the Park TS-7 and a LOT more useful.
It has the same features as the Park TS-2, just not built as solidly. The ends of the fork are plastic, so if you clamp the QR down you risk cracking them. However, simply hand tightening the axle held it well enough for me to build a wheel from scratch in under an hour and true it more accurately than a lot of brand new wheels.
Bottom Line:
If you're a pro, buy the Park TS-2. For the rest of us, this is a good stand at a great price. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Evan Truesdale
a Racer
from Chicago
Date Reviewed: December 3, 2000 | | Favorite Trail: | tailwind when time trialing | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Price Paid: |
$40.00 | | Purchased At: | performance | | Bike Setup: | Giant TCR 1T, king headset, Ultegra drivetrain and brakes, d/a BB, MoDoLo levers, ITM 'post, stem bars, frog steel pedals | | Bottom Line: | cheap, but effective for truing quickly, you just need a dishing tool to check the dish because the stand can only accuratly check front to back and side to side trueness, I would reccomend the Park Tools stand that 10-20 more and then you wont have to spend 12-18 on a dishing tool
3 flaming crack rocks both ways | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Galilao Tsu
a Cross Country Rider
from Albuquerque, NM
Date Reviewed: August 30, 2000 | | Duration Product Used: | 6 months | | Price Paid: |
$40.00 | | Purchased At: | Performance Bicycle | | Strengths: | Good quality for the price. I was able to true my wheels to 1/40" lateral runout. Someone with very good near focusing vision should be able to true the runout to 1/64" possibly 1/128". Since the forks are made of plastic, I tightened the skewer knobs hand tight w/o compressing the Q/R and found the rim sufficiently rigid when rotating the rim along its circumference so as to exert no side force. I also got the alignment tool to calibrate the stand's gauge laterally. Although I used a dishing tool in the replacement of my front hub, the stand's gauge should be able to dish a rim adequately to within 1/32" possibly better if you are a patient wheel truer. | | Weaknesses: | None noticed. | | Similar Products Used: | None | | Bike Setup: | Santa Cruz Superlight with Bontrager Valiant rims. Mongoose IBOC with Sun Sub IV rims. | | Bottom Line: | Does the job at a reasonable price. Performance offers a satisfaction guarantee. | | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
BS
a Cross Country Rider
from Silver Spring, MD
Date Reviewed: April 14, 2000 | | Duration Product Used: | 3 months | | Strengths: | Quality construction. Price. | | Weaknesses: | Can't clamp wheel onto stand. No dishing tool included. | | Similar Products Used: | Park TS-7 | | Bottom Line: | Returned it. Because you can't clamp the hub onto the stand's forks (you have to see the design to understand what I mean), the wheel tends to wobble a little while you are truing. This of course is intolerable and makes wheel truing difficult. Now I'm back to using my Park stand. | Value Rating:Overall Rating: |
Submitted by
Michael J. Ritter
a Cross-Country Rider
from Mountain View, CA
Date Reviewed: August 8, 1999 | | Duration Product Used: |
less than 1 month | | Strengths: |
Price. Has truing gauges on three sides of the rim and they are mounted on screws. Stands on its own (i.e., does not have to mounted on something) and no assembly required. Lastly, axle uprights move simultaneously like the Park TS-2, which is way overpriced. | | Weaknesses: |
Did not come with directions on how to true a wheel | | Similar Products Used: |
Park TS-7 | | Bike Setup: |
Truing mountain bike wheels | | Bottom Line: | This is absolutely an amazing truing stand at any price, but it is only $39. Believe me, I tried other inexpensive truing stands (e.g., see my reviews of Park's TS-7) and this is the one to buy, but not just for the price, for the features as well. I thought I had to spend $160 on a professional truing stand to get all the features that this stand has (see above), but I was wrong. Don't be an idiot like me who bought a Park truing stand (and yes, I do like some of Park's other tools, but their truing stands are either way too expensive or have pathetic features). I should mention that you probably should buy a dishing gauge ($18) or a truing stand alignment tool ($10) and track down instructions on truing a wheel if you don't already know how (it is really simple though). | | Overall Rating: |
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