Spoke tension OR lateral true first?
Not knowing much about how, I’ve never paid much attention to spoke tension and how true my wheels are, mainly because the spokes all felt reasonably tight and the wheels might not have been perfectly straight but weren’t causing any problems either. I suspect some spokes are looser than they should be – I assume that even if they were correct when new, things move around a bit and need a bit of fine tuning so I decided to look at how to do it.
The question I have is, if you follow the park tools methods, step 1 is to get the wheel laterally true, and step 5 deals with spoke tension, do you initially ignore spoke tension? Another guide I read said don’t tighten only the loose spokes because you may cause more issues. I’m guessing if you follow this advice you may end up with some spokes looser than others – if this normal and acceptable?
Main reason for the in-depth questioning of how important the spoke tension is that I am considering how much use I would get from a spoke tension tool if I buy one. Truing stand I’m happy to make do with the bike frame and DIY approach.
The question I have is, if you follow the park tools methods, step 1 is to get the wheel laterally true, and step 5 deals with spoke tension, do you initially ignore spoke tension? Another guide I read said don’t tighten only the loose spokes because you may cause more issues. I’m guessing if you follow this advice you may end up with some spokes looser than others – if this normal and acceptable?
Main reason for the in-depth questioning of how important the spoke tension is that I am considering how much use I would get from a spoke tension tool if I buy one. Truing stand I’m happy to make do with the bike frame and DIY approach.
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So a wheelbuilder (cycleclinic) tells you to leave the wheel alone - and you seem to disagree. You're going to have to explain why you think that.
It seems like an odd suggestion to leave something alone if you haven't assessed it yourself, and the only information you've got to go on is that the wheels weren't far enough from straight to cause any issues at some point in the past and some spokes felt looser than others. It's fairly clear from the question that I have so far done nothing scientific to check either how true they are or what the spoke tension is.
Maybe I misinterpreted the response and all wheels that leave a factory will be fine for their lifetime with no inspection or adjustment needed?
Update: thanks for your response Imposter - no action needed IF the wheel is true, which seems perfectly sensible.
A wheelbuilder who has no knowledge on the wheel make, model, age, history or current state can offer a 4 word sentence in advice without clarifying why - and the OP has to explain why his disagrees?
It may be perfectly good advice - but the OP doesn't know WHY - that's more important IMHO.
From a non-wheelbuilders perspective - if your wheel is true enough that you're not adjusting the brake blocks (assumes rim brakes) and you've not had spokes replaced or recently dinged the wheel and the spoke tensions are reasonably similar (one side will vary from the other on the rear wheel at least) then I would just leave it alone. Only start playing when there's something wrong - or when you don't need the wheel any longer.
The OP did not specifically state that there were any issues with the wheel in question - quite the opposite in fact, the wheel seems to be perfectly serviceable and not out of true. So 'leaving the wheel alone' (which is also what I said earlier) would seem to be perfectly reasonable advice. Unless you disagree?
Pretty sure nobody said that. Inspection is something that should happen as a matter of course. But unless the wheel needs any attention - ie if it is out of true laterally or vertically - then simply carry on riding it. No adjustment needed for something that doesn't need adjusting.
Leave the wheel alone - or inspect it a bit closer ... which is it to be?
As I said earlier, inspection in this respect simply involves looking at the wheel while it is spinning, in order to see if it is true or not. Something that ought to happen as a matter of course. If the wheel is straight, then the spokes are clearly doing their job.
If the wheel is true - or is only slightly out of true - then it is best left alone unless you really know what you are doing such that your intervention improves the wheel. Adjusting it to improve a slight lateral run-out but at the cost of introducing spoke tension inequalities is unwise.
Wheels may develop a bit of side to wide wobble as they get older and it's a simple job to get rid of that on a traditional hand built cycle wheel. I've never used a wheel truing stand or tension tool. I hold a small screwdriver or blue tack a flat headed roofing nail to fork or seat stay so it just skims the rim, mark the sections where the rim is out of true with a wax crayon or similar and tighten/loosen the spokes in that section a tiny bit at a time until the rim moves back straight again.
I've used the same techniques (and lack of specialist equipment) replacing worn out rims on my touring bike and on my wife's Bike Friday performance folding bike. I tape the new rims next to the old and transfer the existing spokes into the equivalent holes in the new rims to ensure the spoking pattern is the same. It's then a question of tightening all the spokes up reasonably tight, then using the frame plus blue tacked nail to ensure roundness and side to side true running. I try to get tight and even tension by ear, tapping each spoke with a screwdriver and comparing the feel with an existing well-built wheel. I then stress the wheel by gripping and squeezing pairs of spokes on both sides and pressing down on the rim all the way round a few times before final tensioning. I take several hours per wheel to make sure I get it right and only do small adjustments at a time. I have a good quality spoke key.
I'm sure some experts may say you need tension meters and all the equipment. But all I can say is this has worked for me. My tourer has done thousands of miles on my re-rimmed wheels, including a French coast-to-coast ride and Alps and Pyrenees tours loaded with camping gear in four panniers.
Getting rid of wobbles in factory wheels with low spoke counts and special spokes is not so easy, although I have done it with Campag Neutrons and Nucleons. You need a special small box spanner to reach the internal nipples. If you buy a quality hand built wheel from someone like cycleclinic (I have) you may well find you never need to do anything to them.
As the old adage goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it. If there is a problem the OP could try to fix it as there is not much to lose.
Marin Nail Trail
Cotic Solaris
Building a new wheel is a bit simpler, in that you can follow a "flow-chart" type procedure.
Typically I don't use the tension meter until I am happy with the wheel being reasonably true and dished if it needs be. At that point I use it to make individual corrections... it is quite common to have two consecutive spokes on the same side with very different tensions and a true wheel... that can be easily corrected by increasing one while lowering the next.
I then use it again to increase the tension until the value I am happy with, working on both sides of the wheel and hence retaining dish, true-ness, and tension homogeneity.
The fact is I haven't checked, but what started the discussion was me finding out what to check, how to check it and trying to get some guidance.
Question on inspection - how far from true do you let your wheels get before you take action?
Anything that I can spot with my eye is way too much
Likewise. I spin the wheel and if there is any side to side wobble on the rim I get rid of it.
Then you realise that the front and rear rims are not mounted in an identical fashion and the decals don't match one another
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OK, so it's one snapped spoke in 50 years of cycling, but it properly put the kybosh on my planned ride. When I retire I'll be spending a lot more time on the bike, and frequently for a day or two at a time, so I'm seriously considering getting a handbuilt wheelset with a few more, readily available spokes, and taping a couple of spares inside the seatpost.
Life's too short for that kind of nonsense. Anyway, I think it looks a bit like a budget version of the single red spoke in some fancy carbon wheels. Maybe I'll nick some of the wife's nail varnish and do it properly.
And one day I plan to swap back the lever from the broken shifter so I'll once again have 2 silver ones. Just need to download the exploded diagrams from Shimano, get some new glasses, and acquire a few valium before I tackle it...
Marin Nail Trail
Cotic Solaris
Probably, but I think a bit of gaffer tape might be a lighter option