Wheel Dishing Tool

A wheel can be true side-to-side and round front-to-back and still be wrong. If the rim isn't centered between the two locknut faces of the hub, the bike will track strangely, the brake pads will wear unevenly, and the rear derailleur won't index cleanly. The 1690/1 dishing gauge reads that centering directly.

The gauge spans the rim with a central point that registers on the hub's locknut face. Set the gauge against one side of the wheel, note where the central point lands relative to the locknut; flip the wheel over and set the gauge against the other side, note the central point again. If both reads land in the same place, the rim is centered between the locknuts and the wheel is correctly dished. If one side is shorter than the other, the rim is dished to the long side, and the spokes on the short side need a fraction of a turn of tightening to pull the rim toward them.

The donuts at either end of the gauge ride on the tire shoulder, which means the dish read works with the tire mounted. That isn't a minor detail: stripping a tubeless tire off a freshly-built wheel to dish-check, then re-mounting and re-sealing, can add half an hour to a wheel build. The 1690/1 lets you skip that step.

Compatibility

• Wheels: 16 to 29 inch rims, with or without tire mounted.
• Hubs: standard front and rear hubs with locknut faces (the registration surface).
• The 1690/1 is for symmetric and most asymmetric dished wheels; check the wheel's intended dish if you're working on an unusual rim/hub combination (some rims are intentionally offset).

Specs

• Wheel range: 16 to 29 inch.
• Tire-shoulder donuts allow dish-check with the tire still mounted.
• Central registration point indexes on the hub locknut face.

Built in Zreče, Slovenia

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill teams. The dishing tool is one of the older designs in the wheelbuilding catalog; the principle hasn't changed since rims have been centered on hubs; and the 1690/1's construction has stayed stable across the years. Most wheelbuilders own one dishing tool and use it for the duration of their wheelbuilding life; the 1690/1 is the version we've watched our mechanics use for that life.

Pro tip from our mechanics

A wheel that's true but un-dished will read perfectly through the truing stand's calipers and still ride wrong. We dish-check every wheel after the lateral and radial true passes, and again after the tension-balance pass; the dish can shift a fraction of a millimeter as the spokes settle into final tension. If the dish has drifted, the wheel goes back on the stand for one more pass. The rest of the truing workflow is in How to true a bike wheel →