Portable truing device for spoked wheels and method of use

摘要

A portable tool designed for effective and efficient lateral truing of damaged spoked wheels, in particular bicycle wheels, is described. The tool is mountable on the bicycle frame, and allows the user to position the truing gauge with four spatial degrees of freedom. The inventive tool features a non-rigidly mounted (floating) truing indicator tip to maintain accurate tool alignment when in contact with a rotating wheel rim that is severely bent out the of the plane of the rim by decoupling rim forces from the rest of the tool. In addition, the combination of the floating action of the truing tip and its construction from a soft polymeric material avoids scratching or otherwise marring the surface of the rim during the truing procedure.

主权项

1. A wheel truing gauge tool for providing a gauge for truing the out-of-plane deformation of the rim of a spoked wheel, comprising:
(i) a mounting base member having a top surface and a bottom surface, the bottom surface adapted to attach to a structural member of a bicycle frame; (ii) a slider rod having a long axis, said slider rod being pivotally affixed to said top surface of the mounting base member; (iii) an adjustor head member having a first through-port through which the slider rod extends, whereby the adjustor head member is slideably and rotationally engaged along said slider rod, and a second through-port, the second through-port having an internal helical thread, (iv) a truing gauge member having a cylindrical body comprising a first end and a second end, a central axis extending from the first end to the second end, and an exterior surface having an external helical thread extending at least partially along the length cylindrical body, said truing gauge member movably affixed to said adjustor head member by engagement of the external helical thread of the truing gauge member with the internal helical thread of the second through-port of said adjustor head member, whereby rotation of the cylindrical body of the truing gauge member moves the truing gauge member relative to the adjustor head member axially along the length of the cylinder body of the truing gauge member; and (v) an indicator probe pliantly affixed to the first end of the truing gauge member through an intervening compliant member, said intervening compliant member having a first end and a second end, whereby the first end of said intervening compliant member is affixed to the truing gauge member and the second end of said intervening compliant member is affixed to the indicator probe in such a way that the indicator probe protrudes from the first end of the truing gauge member.