I would like to commend the Skylar Tools team for their extremely serious, precise, and professional handling of a technical issue with the tool.
There was a problem with the LCD display, which meant that the tool was unusable. The Skylar Tools team was informed of the problem and immediately started solving the problem. They sorted out the matter within a few days, communicated professionally with me, the customer, throughout the process, and solved the problem. All praise to Skylar Tools, and I highly recommend working with this company. You will not be left alone with a problem with their tool.

Thank you Skylar Tools for your effort and the work done.

Mitja from Slovenia

Dear Sir/Madam,

Hello,

Total rebuild, using original parts:
– rear rim was under 1mm laterally (round) and no great than 1.5mm horizontal (left to right). 2008 R1200GS rim that had manufacturers defects and a lot of abuse.
– front rim was under 1.5mm laterally (round) and no great than 1.7mm horizontal (left to right). This rim that had manufacturers defects as well with more abuse, so even spoke tension is not where I would like it but even new wheels are not that great.

I tried all my different wheel building methods but only the truespoke worked. Any traditional wheel correction methods only made the tolerance worse.

I have been build High end bicycle wheels since 2000 as a national level Cycling coach and ex athlete. From down hill, road and endurance MTB racing, I have worked with all different alloys and carbon fiber including the original zipp 404. I have never seen a worse wheel to true than the BMW, almost ridiculous.

The best method I used was to sit comfortably with the wheel on my lap and follow your procedure, only use the screwdriver type handle. I would double/triple check each rotation before moving to the other side. I would also check progress on even spoke tension by ear and make certain any tension deviation was not from wrong measurements. I allowed a -/+0.05 mm tolerance on the required measurements with some exceptions (old parts) and this allowed some room to gain a little more even spoke tension. I would only use the trueing stand after each spoke had been completely checked and rechecked, any deviations were usually my fault or known manufacturers defects. Once nearly completed, now using a small 3/8 T-handle, I would check torque of the nipples (pick a reference, they seem to be all different) and make certain they are above minimum setting. I used 3Nm as a minimum reference but my ears were the main tool. All spokes seemed to be happily settled between 3-4Nm.

Lesson learnt:
On old wheels, Remove all nipples and clean them meticulously.
Clean all the nipple holes the same;
Used heavy oil or never seize on the nipple/hub mating surface, even Molybdenum EP-grease would be good;
Thread holes need to be clean but lubricated with a lighter oil (grease will throw oil measurements);
Spoke tension cannot be accurately tested by torque of the nipples. Without a proper spoke tension gauge (see park bicycle tools) I could only trust my ears (old school).

My down fall was trying to polish a turd (to quote Jerry Lewis). On old wheels, I think anything within manufacturers specs is excellent and 2mm would be ok for old off road type wheels. My old off road wheels are just in spec, still not to my specifications, and have no observable on road handling issues low or high speed.
Spoke tension is my most concern. Over the years of racing, I have found too little tension breaks spokes, to much breaks hubs/rims. To little tension will let the wheel over flex and work harden, the already brittle, stainless steel spoke.
Mavic wheels were notorious for this reason but if the tension was too much, the rim would pull through (circa 2000-2010).

Sincerely,
John

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Hi guys,

Now, I finished my rear wheel as well. I would like to give you some feedback on the procedure, and on the TruSpoke tool.

So I started this project with the spoke wheels because I wanted these on my K100RS rebuild project. For this I bought a set of R1100GS wheels because the hubs fit the K100. Unfortunately the rims were bad, so I had to search for another solution. After a long search and a bit of luck I was presented an almost new set of R1250GS wheels at my local BMW dealer. The wheels were checked for being straight, which they were.

I had both the rims and old hubs sandblasted and Cerakoted (perfect finish). Then I started the trueing process. As I mentioned earlier the front wheel was finished quite quickly with a runout of less than 0.7mm.
I was less lucky with the rear one. I needed 3 attempts to get the wheel trued. I had a well visible “dent” radially, and axially. I tried a second time to true it, but with the same result. So I thought the process through and was fairly sure that the problem was the uneven lengths of the spokes. The spokes for the front wheel had also differences in length, but only minor (0.1mm at max). The ones for the rear wheel had 0.6mm difference between de longest and shortest ones, with the major part in between. So I grinded off the required material to get all spokes to the same length (a few spokes are now 0.1mm shorter). Then I double checked that the rim was straight, by putting it on a real flat surface, like a glass table. Using feeler gauges I could determine that the rim had a spot where it was 0.08mm ‘out of line’. With this I started a new trueing process, and the result was a runout of 0.3mm axially and 0.2mm radially.

In the end I’m convinced that when you can start trueing with perfect rims, good hubs, and spokes all with the exact same length, and with your instructions video, anyone can get these rims perfectly trued. I’m also sure that you will be able to get the wheels straight with less good material, but it will take much more effort and time.

About the TruSpoke tool: It’s a blessing to have it. However, as you state it is a sensitive tool. As you’re busy measuring, it is very hard to get a good reading as the needle may slip a little over the end of the spoke, because I guess the Torx bit has some play in the nipple. On a certain nipple you may measure a value, and on a second measuring you’ll be off by 0.2mm. Nevertheless, a great tool!

I can now proceed with my build. I expect it to be finished in Spring as I’m unable to work on it every day. (I’ll send some pictures).

Many thanks for making this great tool, and for all the help.

Best regards,

Bart.