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 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 .