If you think about truing bicycle wheels yourself, you probably already know that, first,
you’d better have a truing stand. And second, most brand truing stands are quite expensive.
One of cheaper solutions is LifeLine Pro Mechanic
Wheel Truing Stand. In this video I’ll cover some common concerns about it.
Can it handle wider boost hubs? As of today, the description on ChainReactionCycles website still says it
works with hubs only up to 145 mm. And one of the recent reviewers complains he couldn’t fit 148 mm hub.
My experience says the opposite. The stand I purchased in Autumn of 2021 clamps a 148 hub
with no issues. Actual limit is 150 mm. I hope CRC adjust their description accordingly.
Why are there so many other complaints that the stand doesn’t work properly? Most people complain
because they couldn’t make the stand working properly right of the box. Easy to understand.
The supplied documentation is limited, and it doesn’t mention if the stand comes calibrated or not.
In my opinion, you cannot expect it to come calibrated. However, this information
must be provided in the documentation along with some basic adjustment tips.
How much effort does it take to perfectly calibrate the stand? If you know what to do, not much.
But mine had a little problem which seriously hampered calibration procedure.
The problem is inconsistency. The stand seems nicely adjusted with a front wheel, then you
put in a rear one, and it goes some 5 mm off in the caliper. If you have this kind of problem,
check the following. Squeeze the fork stems of the stand with a knob to understand their alignment.
In the end it should be almost perfect, like this. Instead, mine were a couple mm misaligned. This
is enough to cause the problem. You might think something was bent, but first, try the following.
Untighten the stem bolts with a couple of 17mm spanners and check the alignment once again.
In my case the alignment went fine, and the problem was solved.
Some other threads could be overtightened as well,
and you can find such complaints from several other reviewers.
For instance, check if the central arm and the little caliper arms move freely. My stand
operation also went noticeably smoother after I applied some thin lubricant to all friction spots.
The main adjustment is moving the caliper left-right. Making sure that the rim falls
right between the caliper arms. The caliper is fixed with two screws.
They were super tight on my new stand, and I see no reason to tighten them back so much.
There’s another couple of screws here allowing some rotational adjustment of the caliper either.
And there are some more specific adjustments on this stand, but in most cases, they are
not required. This video is not a calibration manual, so I’m not going into further details.
Conclusion. Despite all the flaws, I find the stand absolutely worth the price. The key point,
was, obviously, to make it cheaper. With no doubt, this affects manufacturing precision.
But it is still fine and can be compensated with adjustments. As a personal tool for
wheel truing, it does the job nicely and lets more riders into the pleasure wheel building!