Abbey Tools' Premium Truing Stand Starts at $1,450 - Eurobike 2023
Abbey creates some of the finest tools in cycling, and after what we were told was years of development they have finally unveiled their take on the truing stand.
It may have taken a while to release, but Abbey wanted to ensure that it could feature everything a mechanic would want and find areas to improve where other truing stands might fall short. Abbey's own product page for the truing stand says: "There's so many ways to 'hack' a truing stand, if you're going to make a proper tool why not go all out?"
Abbey has definitely taken truing stands to the next level as it built a system from the ground up to allow mechanics to obsess over every precise detail of building a wheel. Abbey started off building the equipment with a solid machined 6061 aluminum base plate with four adjustable feet allowing for the perfect level workstation before creating a stand that we were told has been mirrored to ensure near-perfect accuracy.
The arms have also been constructed from machined aluminum and have been designed to accept hub widths from 70 to 220mm. Abbey told us that there is space for most hubs and it has even included the ability to avoid needing different adapters for thru-axle hubs with the built-in cones accommodating most sizes. If a hub doesn't fit the many different fitting options Abbey has said it can create custom plates. Built onto the stand's arms is a rotor indicator that can be used on rotors from 140-220mm. Abbey has made it so this can be swapped to either side of the truing stand.
For its launch, Abbey will be offering its truing stand in three different arrangements. There is a standard version of the stand for $1,450, then you can opt to have Mitutoyo indicators for an extra $200. The top-of-the-range model uses the Islandix digital system for a sizeable chunk of cash totalling $2,350.
Islandix is a system that can collect data in real time and send this to a computer to create live data visualisations. Abbey says: "Visualization overcomes traditional problems with quantitative truing: eliminating the need to zero indicators, remembering alignment around the wheel, and scaling to work quantitatively right from the start or knock out gnarly repairs. Visualization combines data from multiple sensors, helping find the shortest path to perfect alignment." When being shown the truing stand we were told Abbey was initially apprehensive about this way of building wheels but after trying it out they found it allows you to create a near-perfect wheel build with greater confidence in accuracy when compared to other methods.
While orders are open now the first shipment isn't expected until September, and Abbey told us there are no plans to hold much stock of these truing stands with them instead falling under a more made-to-order style production run.
More info: Abbey Tools.
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To be fair though,they’re pretty high end zip ties.
I actually bought a used Park Stand for $100, it works fine.
I dunno. I tried
Unless the rim is out of round beyond normal, gradual, systematic, and deliberate tensioning brings most wheels up to within +/- 2mm (round or true) with about 75% of final tension. Most people (and mechanics) are just too impatient to wind 1/4 turns of the spoke at a time when approaching 100% tension. Of course an accurate tensiometer helps, and should be used by all professional wheel-builders and shops, but you get a pretty good feel for tension within different spoke gauges with time, and the tensiometer is just a verification.
I also tried knitting and quit in one day. I just didn't find it interesting. Building wheels, though, I love doing.
@barp: My spoke tension meter and my spoke key are from Park, but my truing stand and dishing gauge are from Tacx, the axle adaptors are from Shimano. Obviously Tacx stuff is true consumer grade stuff (and produced locally) but that's what I am. Has done the job just fine for me so far. It has a separate feeler to look for high points but obviously I still have to look for the gap to find the low spots. It would be of added value if their (Abbey) stand would map all the deviations in their software so that you wouldn't only find the highest spot. Yes ideally the lowest point is opposite to the highest but less stiff rims can also go in kind of a triangle, especially single wall rims. This may only be in the lower end market, but I'm also curious whether this could also happen with that thick laminate Zipp rim. Either way, the only time the Tacx stand felt inadequate was when I tried to lace up a 4kg wheel. Nexus 7sp hub, roller brake installed (because it is relevant for the axle spacing), thick 12g spokes, steel Van Schothorst (Ryde) rim. It was so heavy that the poor truing stand was constantly bending away. That didn't help the process indeed. But as for regular wheels and MTB and BMX wheels in particular which are fairly light, it does the job just fine.
Pretty off putting response if true though!
But if I was going full wanker, I’d go for the P&K Lie!
www.pklie.de/truing_stand.html
I don’t do teeth, I’m not a dentist.
I was making a reference to the price and dentists being able to afford it - a long running joke (maybe a bit tired) here on Pinkbike.
I read the article because it’s on Pinkbike and the title focused on its price point, hence my comment. Is that not okay?
Do you work for Abbey tools per chance?
Oh I see.
Poor folk like me who don’t do teeth, aren’t allowed to dream and read about things we can’t afford. Perhaps instead I should follow motorsport, I’m sure it’s cheaper.
Either way, I really should stop reading pinkbike, along with the other 99%, as we just can’t afford more than half the stuff that gets reviewed here these days, and leave the site to you, your dentist friends and your dentist tool!
www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005506211717.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.seoads.5.3cd9298eDbuf7N&p4p_pvid=2023062700285413670774612528340000142937_3&s=p
For someone who makes a living building wheels, the AliExpress isn't going to satisfy, but for a DIY home mechanic, it may well be alright for a few builds a year.
The Abbey stand appears to me to be a piece you buy and use long term, day in day out. Well built, stiff, accurately made, high quality indicators and Islandix options built in.
Can't say it made me want to try using the website again.
And if the original poster is shown a price of $250 (I assume Canadian) while I see a price of EUR 18 that seems like a case in point. [Obviously it isn‘t really, it‘s probably a configuration error on the website]
Check the link again, with aliexpress they put different options behind different image icons in the listing. The 18 euro is probably the price for a single dial indicator alone.
Data point logging: Yes
On a regular truing stand: definitely not.
That islandix setup sounds super sweet though
Everything else is just nonsense fluff to trick people who aren't very good at building wheels to donate their money to someone elses bank account.
That said,here in Denmark in workshop, I've worked with ancient Danish and Belgian trueing stands,which just works for decades.
www.speedbicycles.ch/works/preciray_truing_stand/preciray_truing_stand.html
,the Danish one is impossible to find on the internet i think. This is just bling. At home just tie a zip tie to the seat stay as indication
The only thing I didn't like about the preciray was the play in the rollers that made it really hard to tune out the final half mm of variation from true. I took the rollers off and just replaced them with fixed plastic pads. The perfect jig.
the other thing is, I don't have a dedicated space to keep it out all the time, so that is probs some of my reasoning here.....why have the 911GT3RS and keep it under a cover all the time? lol
See.....now I just explained to myself that the only reason to own this is vanity, and the bad part is I am totally ok with that.
In reality world however i think as someone once wrote to me its analgous to high end audio gear once you start looking at 50 grand turntables and speakers ( though i do have to admit the carbon fibre speakers are pretty awesome sounding ) people buy it because they can i use a truing stand made out of 8020 slotted aluminium these days the bipolar in me flits from third world mecano to machined to f*ck regularly
I don't see the point. If you clamp the wheel properly you should be able to true it in vertical, horizontal or any orientation in between. Differential spoke sag under asymmetric gravitational force is beyond even this stand's accuracy.
Are you sure they didn't just copy this and throw CNC machined idiocy at it?
Also available on Amazon for those of us stateside.
www.amazon.com/NICE-CHOOSE-Professional-Platform-Maintenance/dp/B08B6814K3/ref=asc_df_B08B6814K3/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=459678693055&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5439961744277023996&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=2840&hvtargid=pla-942799841642&psc=1
I got the HAG stem adapter as well so I can truly level peoples levers before the bikes leave the shop.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoRfieZJxI
What do you mean my warranty is void?!?!?
I owned a machine shop for over 20 years and I know what machine work of that caliber costs.
I mean, look at that thing, it is one seriously gorgeous piece of CNCed artwork. You can argue that this level of craftsmanship is unnecessary but you can definitely see where the $ is being spent.
Top of the line Mitutoyo digital gauges, copious CNCed aluminum for solidity, linear adjustment of the arms for precision.
It may be the perfect tool.
"that'll be $300"