Spoke tension question…

So after purchasing a park tools spoke tension meter I took a look at my recent new wheelset. After 2 rides the tension seemed anywhere for 10 to 25 on the deflection readings, which is terrible.

I spent a few hours getting them all as close to 19 (crest rim, sapim race spokes) as I could and keeping the wheel in true.

However, in some circumstances to keep the wheel in true I now have some spokes far higher/lower tension than I would like (ie. 15/23). If I try to keep it all to 19 it has a distinct wobble.

Am I doing something obviously wrong here? Surely with equal tension the wheel should be close to true (give or take a little)

you shoudl be looking to get all the spokes on each side within 10% of the mean value for that side iirc.

side to side you can have different tensions due to dishing etc.

What happens if getting them within tolerance puts a wobble in the rim (bigger than 2mm)? What should I do?

as wwaswas says different tension depending on dishing and 10% of the mean for each side. Sorry but it has to be said if you’ve gone to the effort of buying a spoke tension guage I’d assume you’ve built or know how to build wheels. A read of Roger Musson’s book on building wheels is probably worthwhile. Sapims race are 2.0/1.8/2.0 double butted spokes so similar to DT Swiss, my crests are built up with DT Comps / 3 cross and read 23 on Drive side and 20 on the non drive from what i remember. The hope hoops on another bike were 24 / 21 straight from the factory but who’s to say that the tension meter is calibrated correctly.

you need to back off on one side and tension on the other to pull the rim across, not just tighten on the side you want to pull it towards (also, do it for a bit ont he spokes either side of the one you;re workign on as you don’t need as much tension int he main one)- it means you’re only making half the adjustment to tension?

I didn’t build this wheelset – they were ‘handbuilt’ by SS. Rather than go to the pain of sending them back (I stupidly chucked the boxes) I thought I’d get a tension meter on them as I could tell by hand they were not right.

I’ve been truing wheels for years, and never worried about tension, but have read that stans rims need even tension to work their best.

Have read sheldon’s site, park tools and have the zen book so feel I know what I’m supposed to do, it just the reality of getting the spokes to the right tension ends up putting a wobble in one spot of the rim….which only taking the adjourning spokes quite out of tolerance brings it in line.

– i am loosing / tightening to remove the kink, thats when the 2 spokes near the kink end up around 23 and the other 2 around 15….which gives a true rim but tension is way out…

I have read (I think Rogers book) that the drive side spokes on a rear wheel will obviously be a good bit tighter than non drive side & because rim manufacturers spec. tension should not be exceeded by too much you should get the drive side tension correct & the non drive side wil be what it is to achieve correct dishing.
You need to be concerned more that spokes on either side of the rim are the same rather than adjascent spokes – this also goes for a disc front although disc side will hold a little more tension.
Also when getting tght it only takes a slight turn of the nipple to significantly alter the tension.

if they’re that far out of wack loosen all of them off and start from scratch, i.e. set the nipples just at the base of the thread and go from there in small steps, it#’ll probably take less time in the lnog run. Just and idea 🙂

younggeoff +1, I’d be tempted to wind everything back and start again.

are you de-stressing the spokes before checking them all with the tension-o-meter?

I’ve never used a tension meter, and never had an issue with the wheels I’ve built. Never built with stans rims though. I assume as they are eyelet-less and very very light they are more susceptible to knocks when the spoke tension is uneven?

course your aware that stans rims dont like tension to be whacked up as high as many other rims ?

Grrr – looks like another evening spent with the wheel jig

For destressing I’m pinching each pair of spokes together after each rotation…

And yep I know they don’t like high tensions, stans site doesn’t appear to mention crests max tension on it (that I can find) but states 85-95kgf for 355’s so I was assuming the same. Using parks chart that’s about a 19 on the tool.

put the axle on the ground and give the rim a good press all the way around every now and again – seems (for me) to make more difference than pulling the spokes together.

wwaswas +1

squeezing spokes is next to useless IMO compared with the swuash it method!

For destressing, I usually lie the wheel on the ground and stand on it at opposite sides of the rim. (note – 10 stone weakling here).

With the advent of discs, I’m usually more concerned with getting even spoke tension than getting the rim absolutely spot on true.