Appreciation post: the $12 spoke wrench that fixed my wheel truing stubbornness

I spent 3 months avoiding wheel truing because I thought I needed a fancy truing stand and a dial indicator. My friend in Portland loaned me his 20 year old Park Tool wrench and told me to just use the brake pads as reference points. After fiddling with the tension on my rear wheel for an hour, I realized the tool was never the issue, it was my fear of overtightening. Now I carry that little wrench in my bag and fix wobbles in 10 minutes flat at the coffee shop. Does anyone else ever overthink a hobby tool before just trying the basic version?

2 comments

2 Comments

sethmartinez1mo ago

Honestly, I was the guy with a full truing stand and a dial gauge sitting in my garage for two years. I thought I needed all that gear to do it right, but it really just made me scared to touch the spokes. Then I snapped a spoke on my commuter trying to muscle a wobble out with a cheap multitool. After that I grabbed a basic wrench and used the brake pad trick, and it just clicked. The fancy stuff is nice but the simple version gets you 90 percent of the way there without the fear.

ben4861mo ago

Ever consider that the brake pad trick is exactly why so many wheels end up slightly out of true, since you're only checking one spot and not the whole rim? The cheap wrench got you riding again, but a dial gauge is what catches the hop you're missing until it wears your brake pads unevenly.

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