Abbey Tools' Premium Truing Stand Starts at $1,450
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
Source: Pinkbike.com
