Spokes and wheelbuilding

Posted by: ReductiMat

Posted by: Mike-E

Great info everyone.  I splurge and bought myself a tensiometer.  If you use one,what tension reading should I be aiming for?

Did you drop large on a DT Swiss one?

If you bought a Park one like me, use it as a relative measure and find what works for you, your spokes, your rim and your riding style.

My riding is fast and I’m not that good so my wheels see a lot of square edges. I found a decent equilibrium between losing all tension in all spokes immediately and breaking spokes every ride.

if you want to geek out on spoke tensioning....

https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/support/tensiometers/

another cool link on the Shimano wheel factory

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/a-look-inside-shimanos-shrouded-wheel-factory/

Just have the park tensiometer.

I think the real value of a tensiometer is obtaining more even tension. As the writer in the link above implied, you just need to be close to the ideal tension. The rim is usually what dictates maximum tension. The Stan’s rims I used to race cross country on stated max tension at 90 kgf. Another thing you want to check is the spoke tension after a tire is mounted and pumped up. Those light Stan’s rims lost a lot of tension with a tire snapped onto the beads. Like 20 kgf lower. I’ve even measured a pretty substantial drop on ENVE rims.

Posted by: XXX_er

Posted by: Endur-Bro

I go with DT ProLock brass nipples on my builds.

https://www.dtswiss.com/en/technology/wheel-technology/pro-lock-technology/

that ^^ looks cool, I never heard of these, how much more do they cost than plain old brass spoke nipples, so I assume you don't need to use spokeprep ??

I don’t know how much 32 regular nipples cost. If I knew that I could make an estimate.

Anyway, I have two sets of LB carb0n rims on those nipples and DT DB spikes and another set of WAO w/ Sapim blades on those spokes

what have you all for truing stands? anybody tried these cheapies from ebay?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Bike-Wheel-Truing-Stand-Bicycle-Wheel-Maintenance-Mechanic-Stand-Fits-16-29-Inch/153974574334?hash=item23d9998cfe:g:yroAAOSwS89dpBAR

20 yrs ago i picked up a park professional wheel truing stand and a park bench mount repair stand from a shop that was closing, nice stuff

Posted by: andy-eunson

Another thing you want to check is the spoke tension after a tire is mounted and pumped up. Those light Stan’s rims lost a lot of tension with a tire snapped onto the beads. Like 20 kgf lower. I’ve even measured a pretty substantial drop on ENVE rims.

I agree.  I couldn't believe at first when building up MK2 Arch (not the lightest Stan's rim), so tested with tire on, tire deflated and tire off and back to tire on and inflated, and the drop in tension was consistent.  Tire on and seated, but deflated was about the same as tire on and inflated.  With the tire off the tension was a lot higher.  The final tension I used, was what was recommended on the little Park chart, but for the wheel with an inflated tire. However, I began to notice small stress cracks around the nipples after a year, so now I build to the recommended tension with the tire off then add tension after I ride a bit if the wheel seems noisy.