How to True a Bicycle Wheel

This video demonstrates how to "true" a bicycle wheel using simple wooden tools that I made in my workshop. The tools are based on plans found in Chapter 3 of an ebook entitled "Professional Guide to Wheel Building, 5th Edition", by Roger Musson. This book is available for download by online purchase at http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuildi.... I found the book to be very informative and simple to understand. After reading this book, I concluded that anybody with reasonable mechanical aptitude should be able to true and even build their own bicycle wheels.

I built the truing stand, radial gauge, lateral gauge, and dishing gauge in one weekend, using scraps pieces of Baltic birch plywood, pine, hard maple, maple plywood, UHMW plastic and 1/4" cold rolled steel flat bar. All of the wooden parts have three coats of oil based urethane for added protection. The nipple driver was made by grinding the tip of an inexpensive slot screw driver, using the dimensions found in Roger's book. The Red Spokey Pro spoke wrench was purchased on line from SJS Cycles in the UK.

This video is not intended to be a comprehensive video on bicycle wheel truing. It only gives a quick overview of the truing process. To really understand the topic in more depth, I would highly recommend that you download Roger's ebook and read it for yourself. I am not a professional bicycle mechanic, just a DIYer with a fairly good mechanical aptitude who enjoys a challenge. This was a fun and practical woodworking project and also an interesting learning experience. I hope that it may inspire others to try their hand at bicycle wheel truing.

Thanks for watching and feel free to leave your comments.