Stopped by a bike co-op in Tucson and watched a guy true a wheel with a spoke wrench and a coffee cup

Lee Lewis · 2026-10-12T13:15:04.968207+00:00

I was in Tucson last week visiting my sister and killed an afternoon at a bike co-op downtown. A volunteer there was truing a wobbly rear wheel and he didn't use a stand at all, just flipped the bike over and zip tied a plastic coffee cup to the frame as a gauge. He spun the wheel and watched the gap between the cup and the rim, then gave the spokes little quarter turns until it ran straight. Took him maybe 15 minutes and the wheel was dead true when he was done. Anyone else here rig up weird shop tools like that, or am I the only one who wants to try the coffee cup trick now?

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Stopped by a bike co-op in Tucson and watched a guy true a wheel with a spoke wrench and a coffee cup | Bicycle Mechanics - Thought Shares