Home > Other Fun Stuff > Gadgets & Hacks

Tune Spurtreu Perfectly Aligns Handlebars to Your Front Wheel – with Lasers!

46 Comments
Support us! Bikerumor may earn a small commission from affiliate links in this article. Learn More

Tune Spurtrue laser alignment for bicycle handlebars and front wheels

Need that one trick tool that no else is gonna have? And one that solves an incredibly frustrating problem at that? The new Tune Spurtreu puts a laser pointer in a CNC’d alloy base that’s shaped to center itself over your stem and handlebars, putting a dot at the center of the tire.

The visual aid lets you get things perfectly centered so long as your wheel’s dish center’s the tire in the fork. And all for just €69 ($100USD at Fair Wheel Bikes). The name roughly means “tracks true”, which is exactly what you should be when laser red stars are aligned.

tune-spurtreu-handlebar-front-wheel-laser-alignment-tool2

 

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

46 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Lodz
Lodz
9 years ago

A wonder no one had thought of it before! Really handy for shops.

goridebikes
goridebikes
9 years ago

unsure if amazing or excessive or trolling

Felix
Felix
9 years ago

Great idea, can’t be too hard to make one DIY-style for a few bucks.

sambo
sambo
9 years ago

does the bar or stem size matter?

ebaumann
ebaumann
9 years ago

FINALLY

Frank
Frank
9 years ago

Awesome! but $100?!??

I’m pretty sure I could make one myself with a $6 laser pen and a scrap piece of 2×4.

brattercakes
brattercakes
9 years ago

Great idea, but that price… no.

RM2Ride
RM2Ride
9 years ago

Uh, haven’t we all survived quite nicely with the “eyeball it and adjust it” approach up until now?

A (one hundred dollar) solution to a problem that doesn’t really exist.

ebaumann
ebaumann
9 years ago

hey folks, please keep in mind that this is being produced by a company that also sells a $240 carbon coffee mug…its safe to say they aren’t really looking to sell to the “eyeball it and adjust it” crowd on this one…

MB
MB
9 years ago

I’m more interested in the bike in the picture.

gr
gr
9 years ago

this doesn’t resolve the issue of relying on the user to ‘eyeball’ the centering of the stem over the wheel. This tool simply places a laser dot on the tire which the user must then ‘eyeball’ in order center the stem.

Kurt the Mechanic
Kurt the Mechanic
9 years ago

I have been a bike mechanic for years and I still get frustrated trying to align stems. I think my face is crooked. I will buy this tool to make my life easier.

Joe Bieniecki
9 years ago

gr is correct a better version of this would sit on the top tube and square off the down tube to project a line that could be used to center the stem and the bars to the centerline of the frame

Dave B
Dave B
9 years ago

The V-notch over the stem and the arches over the handlebars should assure the bracket is at a 90° angle and centered and make it tolerant of a variety of handlebar clamp diameters.

It’s a clever tool but, at $100, not for me. A shop mechanic could use it to both speed set up and alignment and have an objective demonstration of centering for customers who complain their bars/stem are off-center.

JoeNomad
JoeNomad
9 years ago

@MB, I believe that is a Litespeed head tube badge.

Alex
Alex
9 years ago

They should have used two lasers. That would make it useful. Actually I think you can just make a DIY version for much cheaper with some lasers from ebay.

Matthew
Matthew
9 years ago

Dave B hits the nail on the head. I’ve seen the customer who returned to my LBS complaining about misalignment of her stem for three or four passes. The alignment was fine, but she probably chewed up more than the amount of time equalling $100 of labor until she stopped complaining. Plus, there’s the chance that she’s (falsely) assuming the problem is with the Wrench, not her cross-eyed alignment check. Doesn’t matter though; she’s telling anyone who will listen how terrible the mechanics at the LBS are and how they should take their business elsewhere.

I view this kind of tool in the same realm as the headset tube reamer/facer. Most of us don’t need it, but those of us who ream a headtube more than once every two or three years do can’t live without it.

Psi Squared
Psi Squared
9 years ago

A line generator wouldn’t improve this, except in the case where the line generator also helped align the saddle. The line generator would have to sit above the saddle and stem and would have to have a field of view that included the tire. That’s a lot more complicated than this simple set up.

While the setup does require that you eyeball the laser spot with respect to the center of the tire, it will have much less parallax error than eyeballing the stem to the center of the tire. As mentioned by Dave B, the v-notch coupled with the arches over the handlebar assure alignment on the vast majority of stems and handlebars. High aspect ratio handlebars might cause problems, but it’s not like those handlebars dominate LBS sales and service.

All in all, it’s a pretty cool device. Sure it’s not necessary, but it’s useful and has a laser. The world can always use more lasers.

Robbo
9 years ago

Nice (if expensive) bit of for road bikes. Can foresee problems using it on new-fashioned short n’ stumpy Enduro (trademark) stems, though. And yes, if your wheel is crooked in the dropouts, it’s a moot point anyway.

Ripnshread
Ripnshread
9 years ago

This and a Park Tool 1554-1 would make things perfect.

anonymous
anonymous
9 years ago

Here’s a tip I picked up from somewhere.

Find something big and flat, like a nice flat section of floor.

Put the frame down on the floor so the fork dropouts and the front of the drop bars are touching the ground.

When all 4 points are in contact, tighten the stem,

Nony B.
Nony B.
9 years ago

I use a simple and cheap spirit level from a hardware store and it does the job just fine.

Troy
Troy
9 years ago

I have a great technique to solve this problem: I align the stem with the front wheel using my eyes. Works great!

Mike
Mike
9 years ago

I’m going to buy this so I can laugh at myself.

Mindless
Mindless
9 years ago

I do have a laser level for house construction projects. It will be trivial to adapt by just bolting it overhead, so it generates a nice straight line – to set stem saddle, etc.

But I can not imagine it making any appreciable difference over just setting it like I have always done it. Even when visibly misaligned, it still rides OK enough…

Xris
Xris
9 years ago

I thought of that first, damn.

Bikeco
Bikeco
9 years ago

Or how about a plum line?

old guy
9 years ago

I once had a customer at an LBS that complained that I couldn’t properly align her stem. After a couple of failed attempts, I loosened the stem bolts, and had her align the stem to her satisfaction. Worked like a charm. She came back to the shop many times after that.

ginsu
ginsu
9 years ago

$100 could get me a shark with friggin’ laser beams…that’s ridiculous. It doesn’t have to be CNC’d, and the laser pen is what $5 at most? Also, this would be much more useful if it threw out a laser line like those tools at Home Depot.

Maybe at a shop you could show that off to gullible customers, but really not for any self-respecting home mechanic in the real world. I’m just going to use my laser pen and align it with the bolts on my stem, like I do to check my chainline.

shawn small
9 years ago

It would be fun/easy to develop a 3d print file for this.

Guy
Guy
9 years ago

I could be wrong but one dot does not make a line. A laser line along the tire might help this a little. The price wouldn’t be horrible if the product could ensure that your alignment is perfect.

greg
greg
9 years ago

one would be amazed at the number of stems that dont mount the handlebar square with the extension. bar can be slightly fore/aft or slightly high/low. the high/low part would throw off this laser quite a bit, but then again if you have one of those stems you have bigger alignment problems…

Jason
Jason
9 years ago

i use a tile square laser level, about $40…

Champs
Champs
9 years ago

FINALLY a solution to this silent killer. The world has been waiting for more sophisticated technology to eyeball handlebar alignment.

Laugh if you want, but did you know that more people die from misaligned bars than cancer and heart disease combined? Have you never lost a loved one due to the bars being as much as a centimeter off in reach from one end to the other? The answer to these questions (and many others, related or otherwise) is no. But does not knowing these things make them untrue?

Nash
Nash
9 years ago

A piece of string works better than this, line the stem up with the wheel while keeping the string tight and use the eye. KISS

notapro
notapro
9 years ago

The human brain is a mystery.

WannaBeSTi
WannaBeSTi
9 years ago

I like the tool. I think it would be helpful to many people/ shops. And not just as a gimmick. $100 seems steep, but most really good tools are expensive… Shimano SIS cable cutter MSRP’s for $85, Rock Shox 24mm cone wrench $35, Campag 11s Chain tool $250…

In my shop, I “think” I have the straightest eye for aligning a stem. I’ve have asked 4 other mechanics what they thought after I aligned a stem and got 3 different answers.

My conclusion, straightness is in the eye of the beholder. A laser could shut a lotta people up.

quickgeezer
quickgeezer
9 years ago

I agree that straightness is [mostly] in the eye of the beholder, once you get it reasonably, approximately straight; I don’t think this overbuilt and overpriced tool changes that. And, if your stem is 1º, 2º, 3º misaligned in relation to your wheel … what difference in riding does that actually make for 99% of us? $100? Unh-uh.

Chris Balser
Chris Balser
9 years ago

I hold the US patent for this tool

Matt
Matt
9 years ago

I am going to buy this and then buy another tool to make sure this tool is aligned properly on the handlebars/stem.

broken
broken
9 years ago

I broke my collarbone once, so i run my stem crooked so it feels straight

Ajax
Ajax
9 years ago

I like this, but $100 is a ripoff!

Max McAllister
8 years ago

Aligning stems by eye is virtually impossible, due to eye dominance, and parallax… this is no news to shooters/hunters.

I bought this tool, and the bracket is fine, but the laser is a cheap POS. You can easily wiggle the laser in the tool. The laser is so cheap that it can bend and distort. I helped it by moving the laser up out of the tool and grabbing it by the cap… that helped. Some.

The problem with the tool is that you will drop it, A LOT. It is an odd shape. When you place it on your bike, you think it will stay put, but it doesn’t. Your wheel will tip to the side on the stand, and it will fall off and hit the ground… or several other similar circumstances.

I found a 20-Gauge Shotgun shell laser bore sighting too for $15 on Amazon, and bored the little hole out to take the bigger, more solid laser. It’s perfect now.

People that think $100 for a tool like this is “too expensive” and “overpriced”… are just poor, and would never buy a tool like this anyway, so you can disregard their pointless comments. It is America, and you are welcome to buy a $200,000 CNC Machine, hire a CNC Programmer for $100K a year, buy a building to put it in, and make your own!

For me, I’ve wasted days of my life aligning stems, and with this tool it is an instant problem solved. Leave the stem loose enough so it doesn’t “skip” when you try and move it, and just align the red dot and tighten the bolts. It took me longer to type how to do it, than it does to do the whole process.

Law
Law
8 years ago

This is a stolen invention! The manufacturer also knows that!!!

chris
7 years ago
Reply to  Law

I have the US patent — filed 2011

chris
7 years ago

Company ignores my emails regarding my US patent-peding on this tool — not cool.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Sign up to receive BikeRumor content direct to your inbox.