True Love in Color

[PedalUma]

I am working on nice XL Giant for a 21-year-old who is taking it back to college in NY. It is his main transportation. It is getting a tune with bunch of refinements and upgrades. He is slim 6'6" and 21 so he does not need an eBike. Analog is just fine. I am truing the front wheel now and it was way off. He must have hit a couple of curbs when doing age appropriate things. This technique for truing may sound odd, as with most all of my approaches, even third world to some, but it works great. First buy a set of Crayola Pastel Oil Crayons; they are like $3 for 28 and will last decades. Spin the wheel fast and gently hold your first color close to the right fork at the rim, then the left. Barely let it touch to skip on the high spots. Each go around between refining adjustments, use a new color to mark progress. Be a little aggressive at first, then back off with each new color and set of adjustments. Without using a truing stand you can get pro results right on the bike. A little solvent will remove the color from the rim.

 

[stompandgo]

Sounds reasonable for a disc brake bike with no reference like a caliper brake pad. Somebody makes a strap-on truing guide for forks. I've seen it somewhere. Much faster than removing a tire and tube to put it in the stand.

 

[PCeBiker]

,.. Somebody makes a strap-on truing guide for forks. I've seen it somewhere.

A Zip Tie wrapped around the fork tube or chainstay works Great !!!

And solder wrapped around a spoke makes Great wheel balancing weights.

@PedalUma and I like to do dumb s*it like balancing bicycle tires.

 

[PCeBiker]

I used a regular magic marker on my old POS to mark the warped wheel,..

My homemade spoke has been working well and my new spokes have arrived,..

I only needed a single spoke, but I had to buy 36 for $16.50.

I should be able to reuse the old spoke nipple, so I shouldn't have to remove the wheel or tire or anything.
Luckily the spoke isn't blocked by anything, so the new spoke should just feed right into place.

 

[PedalUma]

I am so much more conventional than I thought @PCeBiker.

 

[PCeBiker]

I am so much more conventional than I thought @PCeBiker.

I bought a package of pastels as well, but the magic marker was a bit easier to use.

I'm not going to bother cleaning it off the rim.

 

[stompandgo]

A Zip Tie wrapped around the fork tube or chainstay works Great !!!

View attachment 195790

I am warning you now that I am stealing that idea. Thank you.

 

[Base]

I am warning you now that I am stealing that idea. Thank you.

Pocket wheel truing tool

Unior tools. Fietsgereedschappen. Wielrichters en accessoires. Pocket wheel truing tool

uniortools.com

you were refering to that one?

work ok. on longer trips (camping) I take a few long straps and a bundle of zipties. so I can suspend the bike and use a ziptie to true a wheel (usually not one of my bikes...)

 

[stompandgo]

That's a great looking tool. However, I need to stop buying tools.

 

[Base]

That's a great looking tool. However, I need to stop buying tools.

same.... got more tools already to fill 2 workshop setups completely...

for on the road I've got one of those backpacks from XLC

filled with a mix of Unior and Cyclus tools. thats the grab-bag to go to dealers iff they cannot fix a problem...

besides that in the car I've a "basic" .... tool set so I can repair most things on the road and at home I have 1 1/2 workshop set. For the datcha there is a small set for working on the lighter bikes. And in my day to day back for office work I also carry a designer set with kit to use on the road and with the oddities we do not have in the office workshop. and yes owning 2 wheel trying stands is on the edge of overkill....

 

[Base]

The grab bag for dealer visits. No more meetings so time for coffee and taking this snapshot

 

[PedalUma]

I am doing house calls by bike. It usually takes two trips. The first is to assess what tools I need to bring or parts. Folks with a home office often need to stay there during normal bike shop hours.

 

[Base]

something like this would be for your house calls than. Those are outfitted by Shimano in the Netherlands,

since I am not one of the mobile mechanics I do not have access to one kitted vans and have to work from my grab-bag once in a while (mostly high profile cases where we have to be asap... so cannot be planned via the usual mechanics planning).

and you have guys like these around here in Amersfoort with a fully loaded bikeshop on wheels

in the background the "Koppelpoort" dating back to 1380.

 

[stompandgo]

I'm not a shop employee, I'm an independent contractor. I bring my own tools for a number of reasons, and I'm the only mechanic that does. I have way more tools than this at home in the rollaway, and I don't bring any of my classic and collectable bike tools other than a few freewheel tools. All of my highest quality standard tools stay in the rollaway.

I travel with two bags. One contains the standard tools, and the other has bike-specific tools.

By actively managing my tools during the day, it takes me about 2 minutes to set up and the same to put away. I like organization and cleanliness. I can't stand chaos.

I pledged to myself to go through everything after a month and remove the tools I don't think that I'll need regularly. I'd like to find room for my 3/8" 60nM CDI torque wrench, as I've had to borrow that from another bench.

 

[PedalUma]

@stompandgo, see the thread 'Show Us A Tool'.

 

[Base]

When I was working at a few bikeshops, also was the only one to bring my own tools. At a certain point you grow into a habbit with your own tools. And I really dislike drity/broken tools. These torque wrenches in this bag are just the backup ones. I usually grab my Geodore one, does left and right.

 

[harryS]

Zip ties on a fork work for me too. When I built wheels, I would true them in a old 135mm fat tire fork (or a 100mm fork for front wheels) clamped top my desk. I would tape a piece of paper to the fork, and mark it with a pencil.

It is amazing how far a rim will move. when it is close to true, with a quarter or half turn in or out on just 4 adjacent spokes.


.

 

[stompandgo]

We have a Park wheel stand and dish tool on another bench. This would be for tune-up truing. No need to pull the tire/tube for a touch up.