TIL a $10 spoke tension meter saved me from buying new wheels

Been building wheels for like 3 years just going by feel and plucking spokes like a guitar. Did a proper tension check on my last set and found the rear dish was way off - like 6 spokes were over 130kgf and 4 were under 80. No wonder that wheel kept going out of true after 2 rides. Grabbed the Park Tool TM-1 off a buddy for $10 and yeah it's basic but now all my wheels are holding up way better. Anyone else skip tension meters for too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

anderson.gavin29d ago

Heard a wheelbuilder say you can't fix what you can't measure, and he wasn't wrong.

morgan51229d ago

But what about stuff you COULD measure but just choose not to? @anderson.gavin that wheelbuilder was talking about trueness and tension and dish, sure. But there's a whole bunch of things riders ignore because they don't want to know the numbers. Like spoke stress relief - you can totally measure how much a spoke un-twists after it's been tensioned. Or even the roughness of the rim brake track with a basic file. People just skip those checks because they assume everything is fine. That mindset is probably why so many mid-range wheels sound like a maraca after 500 miles.