Uni wheel truing tool

Unicycles and Equipment
1

I came back from a ride today to find several spokes dangerously loose and my wheel WAY out of true. Unfortunately, I knew there was no way I could fit my uni wheel in my bike truing stand and thought I might be up a creek for a while until I could buy/design some adapter. Then, I remembered I had one of these:

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It’s a Harbor Freight special, and on sale with standard 20% off coupon, you can get one for $25 or less.

The beautiful thing is with one of these, you need no truing stand. The uni is the stand itself, as long as you can hang it from something that allows the wheel to spin. (Heck, you could probably even just roll the uni along the ground to make the wheel move, but that might make it a bit more awkward to tighten/loosen the spokes.) The vice grips go around the seatpost, the dial indicator runs on the rim like so:

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And, presto! You can see what parts of your wheel are out of true to within less than .001 inches. Bonus: You can do your rotors the same way.

It worked great for me, so I thought I might pass it along in case any of you has been trying to figure out ways around the bike truing stand problem.

2

I’ve always just taped a tooth pick to my frame, or used my maggies brake pads.

3

Zip tie works well, cheap, makes a nice clear sound.

4

Zip ties are surprisingly good. I have one on each of my uni’s that I just rotate out of the way when I don’t need it.

The dial indicators are nice for getting rotors straight, but that level of accuracy isn’t generally needed for rims. Still it is really cool to see visually the impact of even the smallest nipple adjustments.

On the other hand I don’t usually use indicators until the rim is fairly straight already. They jump so wildly with the smallest wobble or dip that anything more is just out of control. Consider that one full revolution of the needle is 1/10", or 2.5mm.

5

For the 24" wheel that I just rebuilt, I used the first knuckle of my left thumb stuck in between the frame leg and the rim. It was very easy to feel if it had the same pressure on it on both sides and exactly where along the rim it was looser or tighter.

But I want to know the Harbor Freight part number on that gooseneck indicator holder, because Harbor Freight.

6

Damn. Every time I think I’m being clever, someone else as already figured out a cheaper/faster way to do it that’s just as easy. Oh, well.

The other ideas are good ones to know, though, in case I have to make on-the-road repairs. Thanks for sharing 'em.

For LargeEddie:

7

It really is a good idea that I haven’t seen on this forum before, so don’t beat yourself up over it. As disc brakes become more commonplace this sort of idea will be very handy for many. As I said before the indicator is ideal for truing rotors, and they do need adjustment now and then.