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1. nicko74 - Member

   I'm in the process of building some new rims onto my hubs, and in theory I'm not far off having them done. They're laced up, the spoke tension is looking pretty good, and it's just a case of ironing out the last few kinks and wobbles to make them true.

   Thing is, I seem to have got to a stage where every time I tighten a spoke (to pull a kink back in line; to make it more radially true, etc), something else goes out of true, and it's driving me up the wall. It's all pretty simple stuff - a quarter turn here, quarter turn here, quarter turn there, then go round stressing the spokes (grabbing pairs), then see how it looks - but it really seems to be going nowhere.

   What am I missing/ what do I need to be doing that I'm not?

   Posted 11 months ago #
2. cynic-al - Member

   You must be very close. What's the rim? IME ferrulle-less rims can do this under gigh tension.

   Loosen off and/or try 1/8 turns.

   Posted 11 months ago #
3. thepurist - Member

   Had this with a Stans Crest rim on the 2nd wheel I've ever built. Wind the tension out evenly all round (1/2 a turn or more) and start again from there

   Posted 11 months ago #
4. resisted - Member

   take the wheel out of the stand, lay it on the floor and apply pressure either side of the rim, rotate a quarter turn, do it again and again until it's stressed. Flip it over and do the same. Pop it back in the truing stand and tweak. Rinse and repeat.

   Also, once it's getting really close, pop some tyres on and go for a spin. With the rigidity of modern rims, it's almost impossible to stress them without riding.

   This should help, unless I've misunderstood what you're asking.

   Posted 11 months ago #
5. S_J - Member

   Sounds like you've got too much tension to me.

   Posted 11 months ago #
6. -m- - Member

   Another vote for too much tension.

   Posted 11 months ago #
7. nedrapier - Member

   And/or you might be twisting the spokes rather than tightening the nipple? tape markers on the spoke or looking closely at little marks on the spokes will help.

   Posted 11 months ago #
8. lovewookie - Member

   maybe too much tension, maybe not. If you're looking to make it round and having problems try fiddling with the spokes perpendicular to the problem area. If you have a rise, look at the spokes at 90deg to it. loosen them a little and the ones opposite. This should let the rim relax and return to round, rather than oval (think about squeezing half an orange and ow it deforms).

   It might be quite subtle though, but worth giving it a go.

   if it's lateral, then it will be the case of tighten here, loosen there, to ever decreasing increments.

   Posted 11 months ago #
9. sv - Member

   yep too much tension, back-off a bit and true up.

   Posted 11 months ago #
10. Rorschach - Member

    nedrapier takes the prize!!When you put 1/4 of a turn on go past it to 1/3 then back off to 1/4.It becomes 2nd nature (after a few hundred wheels) and you get a feel for it.Putting a bit of tape or a pen mark on each spoke is a good tip.
    Stans not having eyelets makes them harder to over tension because the nipples dig into the rim before you get to silly tensions usually.Thingy at JRA tensioned some stans to destruction and got WAAY past the recommended figures before they died.

    Posted 11 months ago #
11. cynic-al - Member

    You can diagnose over the internet? I am impressed.

    Unfortunately you got it wrong re. stans rims - they are specific that they should be a lower tension than usual because that's very easy to do. They then become very tricky to true in this way.

    Posted 11 months ago #
12. nicko74 - Member

    ooh, interesting that Crests come up - they are Crests, so no ferrules. The spokes are tightening, but it sounds like it's too tight. I'll back it off and try again - thanks for the pointers!

    edit: should point out that they're not stupid-tight, but obviously would benefit from loosening off a bit.

    Posted 11 months ago #
13. coatesy - Member

    Probably not, but if the axle rotates in the jig, this can often throw your truing out(axles aren't always drilled perfectly central, or can be bent).

    Posted 11 months ago #

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