Feedback Sports Pro Truing Stand

The Feedback Sports Pro Truing Stand is the last word in portable yet pro-level wheel and disc truing. Solidly built, modular and accommodating almost every standard known to humankind, it's the last wheel servicing stand you'll ever need to buy. Just as well considering the price – but it's still way cheaper than the Park Tool alternative.

Feedback Sports is renowned for beautiful and beautifully-functional tools, and the Pro Truing Stand is no exception. Pretty much every aspect – from its mounting, to how it functions, adjusts and even folds for transport, has been meticulously thought through.

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Firstly we have to understand this is not a wheel building stand. It's in the name – it really is a truing stand. A proper wheel-building stand is a more complicated, heavy, expensive, accurate and rigid beast.

For mounting, you have two options: the included 2.6kg steel base for use on a table or bench, or attachment to one of Feedback's excellent workstands such as the Pro Elite. This option is great for travelling mechanics, as the alloy arm alone is just 860g. It also frees up workshop space if you're cramped.

The chromed steel base has an indentation to hold small parts (valves, nipples, spoke keys etc) and underneath is a 10 x 15cm steel plate that forms the mounting post section. This is removable, and can be permanently bolted to a worktop or screwed to a wall.

The arm attaches via a toothed adjustable clamp, which also slips over the top of a Feedback stand, and the angle can be quickly adjusted to position wheels just-so.

Its party trick is the indicator assembly, which adjusts to bring its spring-loaded white plastic tip close to the rim. It can be fixed with a locknut, but the tolerances are tight enough it isn't needed. The fact the tip is plastic means you don't fear for rim decals, and because it's white it's easy to judge when contact is made without needing complete silence.

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There's a small amount of play if you apply sideways force on the rim, but nothing that affects the performance. Yes, a stand that supports both ends of the axle can remove this play, but at the cost of weight, bulk, compatibility and setup/removal time.

On the wheel side of the rod are two knurled discs with machined gaps on their inside faces, and they leave a 2.4mm space when done up tight against each other. It's with this Shimano-calliper-pad-width space you align your 1.7mm-thick disc brake rotor to true it.

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The ability to quickly and easily true disc rotors is to me of more use than truing the wheel itself – if you're running discs, you likely don't care about rim wobbles as there's no pad there to rub, but an even slightly wobbly rotor will drive you nuts with noise. It can also glaze your pads and wear them down pretty quickly.

There's a small metal tab for adjusting out wheel hop (where the wheel isn't perfectly circular), and as you sneak up on perfection the tab micro-adjusts with the black knob, making the process fast and easy.

Axle standards

The Pro Truing Stand handles quick release (QR) and through-axle (TA) hubs equally well, with no compromise – unlike most other designs. Its TA adapter takes from 10 to 20mm axles, and up to 157mm Super Boost hubs.

Those needing a fatbike-eating 170mm-plus stand need to look to Park Tool's models for support, though. Alternatively, Feedback Sports could release a 170mm rod as an accessory, should fatbike demand in the post-zombie-apocalypse-nuclear-winter really boom.

Once adjusted, there's a locknut on the thru-axle adapter to secure your chosen width, minimising the amount of spinning to get the wheel centred and secured. Properly set up, it means you can install or remove a wheel in five seconds flat. 

One area Feedback could improve on is the security of this locknut – if you are doing significantly violent work, for example fitting a tyre or manhandling a tyre bead, then the repeated back-and-forth flexing of the setup can cause the slick steel locknut to work loose. You can get the locknut even tighter by winding in the plastic 'Z-knob' at the end to really crank it down. Some sort of friction material could solve this minor niggle. 

Clearance

The stand takes pretty much any diameter wheel, up to and including a 700C/29in rim with a 3in tyre, so as a workstation for tubeless tapes, valves, tyres and sealant it's a winner. The single-sided design and oodles of tyre clearance win out over dual-sided designs in this regard – my calculations say even a 4in wide 29er tyre on a 100mm hub should fit.

Value

At the budget end of the spectrum (BYO table or bench to clamp it to) you'll get along fine with the Tacx Exact Wheel Truing Stand so long as you only do QR wheels... and if Garmin hadn't apparently killed Tacx's truing stand business in its recent acquisition.

Another half-hearted option is the £100 Park Tool TS-8 which Dave rather took to, except that's QR-only as well. Park Tool does an adapter for £50, but if you want disc truing as well you need the £210 TS-2.2P stand and either the £50 TS-TA disc adapter or the £17 TS-2TA adapters. For Park Tool to match the Feedback means a £227+ mash-up of heavy bits. Not great value, even for this Park Tool fan.

Overall

Feedback Sports has delivered a small, light, functionally brilliant and adaptable solution for £77 less than Park Tool. Its versatility, multiple mounting options and easy operation add up to a fabulous package for any cyclist. This is an excellent choice for stepping up your home or pro wheel game.

Verdict

Effortlessly enables wheel maintenance and proves a portable, compact package