Not to arouse the ire of our vigilante topic cops, in my experience, good vernier, dial and digital calipers have equal accuracy if you know how to use them. I'd venture that price probably gives better reliability, but for our purposes, the cheapest one serve just fine. I've had a vernier for 50 years, but over time have moved to dial and then digital as my eyes got older. They all have their pros and cons; I've found that dial calipers got dirt in the rack and started to skip. The battery on digitals would die. But I agree with earlier posts, spending under $20 on a digital caliper today is outstanding value.
Brent Davis wrote:
> For bicycles you only need to spend a small amount of money as there are no
> critical measurement that need to be accurate to greater then .001" $20 will
> buy the tool you need and have in your box for the rest of your life.
>
> Learning what tool to use and when to use it is paramount to being
> mechanically proficient. Vernier calipers have their place and are somewhat
> useful on bicycles but their limitations preclude them to either the wood
> shop of or an extremely experienced professional. A dial caliper is far more
> accurate and better suited to occasional use and long term storage. Digital
> would be best used more often and considered less accurate then a good dial
> calaper unless you are willing to steap up and pay hundreds for an good
> acurate digital caliper. You see comparing a $40 dial caliper to a digital
> is a mis match in accuracy.
>
> To really get precise throw out the calipers and get a mic.
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John Betmanis Woodstock, Ontario Canada