Spoke tension?

dazzawazza
dazzawazza Posts: 462
edited March 2008 in Road beginners
I've just trued the front wheel on my Allez.
These are the std factory wheels that came with the bike (will be upgrading £150-200 when funds allow); and this is the first time I've touched them (bike was purchased last May and has done about 1500 miles).
I've felt the tension of all the spokes and some of them feel like they could be tighter (I'm a plebe at truing so don't really know).
The question I have is, should I work around the wheel and tighten the spokes a quarter or half a turn??

Thanks

I'll be starting on the rear wheel later.

Comments

  • marky2484
    marky2484 Posts: 160
    Are your wheels out of true? If not -leave well alone. There is a reason that employees of bike shops p**s themselves laughing when people come in and buy spoke keys....... :o
    If I had a baby elephant, I\'d be asking my girlfriend some SERIOUS questions.....
  • dazzawazza
    dazzawazza Posts: 462
    I was thinking about taking them to the bike shop, but would prefer to put that money towards new wheels.
    I managed to true the front wheel ok, so should probably leave it alone now.
    I was just asking, because my work has moved further away from home and I'm going to use the road bike to commute instead of my MTB.
    I would prefer the current wheels are as strong as possible when negotiating crap London roads, and having correct spoke tension would help.
  • geoff_ss
    geoff_ss Posts: 1,201
    marky2484 wrote:
    Are your wheels out of true? If not -leave well alone. There is a reason that employees of bike shops p**s themselves laughing when people come in and buy spoke keys....... :o

    They didn't laugh at me when I bought one and I've since built lots of wheels for myself and my wife, iIncluding tandem wheels that are notoriously difficult to get right. There's no mystery about wheel building; it's just care and common sense. The main difference between my wheels and a professionally built pair is that it took me a lot longer to get them right. If I was building wheels every day I'd get quicker.

    Though I agree that it's best not to touch a wheel if it's true and the tension is the same on all the spokes. Front wheels aren't too critical though as they don't suffer the stresses of the rear and rarely fail except by accident or pot hole.

    Geoff
    Old cyclists never die; they just fit smaller chainrings ... and pedal faster
  • dennisn
    dennisn Posts: 10,601
    Unless you have a truing stand and at least an idea of what you are doing don't just
    start tightening spokes. Get a good book on the subject and a proper spoke wrench.
    There are people who can true a wheel just by looking at it but I doubt that this is your case. You can ruin a wheel by not knowing what to do. Don't let people kid you that
    it's "easy'' "piece of cake" or "nothing to it". Is it "easy" once you get the hang of it???
    Yes, and you save money by not having to take it to the shop. Sort of an art that is
    well worth learning and investing in proper tools.

    Dennis Noward
  • johnnypipe85
    johnnypipe85 Posts: 145
    Wheelbuilding is great! It's a form of art, and the only skill you need to be an artist is patience.
    Here you can learn all you need to know about wheel building trueing and repairing:


    http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

    I can't believe no one linked you to it, yet!!!

    Enjoy!
  • david 142
    david 142 Posts: 227
    I certainly wouldnt knock anyone who wants to have a try, but if you're not confident with the result, take 'em in. My lbs only charge about a fiver to check truth and spoke tension. Just make sure that the bearings are correctly adjusted first :lol:
    Its worth getting it right because when you do upgrade these wheels will likely become your winter wheels...

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