What’s acceptable for wheel build tolerance?

What’s the normal new wheel tolerance for lateral/radial trueness? Let’s assume we’re talking about decent quality high end wheels here.

From the recent Berd spoke thread the builder was doing it all to within 0.1mm. Yet I’m seeing wheels on £6k bikes or £2k carbon wheels wobbling around from new. Sometimes they can be trued, but often the rims are deformed from the factory and there’s nothing to be done.

Don’t care? Looks straight? Specific measurement? Whatever keeps the spoke tension even?

Crapshoot unless you’re getting them hand built. Most will be by machine and who knows what various factories will set them to but they often don’t seem to hold tension very long.

I’d expect a wheel to be wobble free regardless of how much it cost.

Ok, if I’d bought a pair of generic ebay special wheels for £100 I’d probably not be too suprised if there was a bit of wobble but wheels from any ‘real’ builder should be straight enough that you can’t see them wobble.

So long as it doesn’t look wobbly when it spins and you can’t feel it jumping around in the frame, I’d be happy. True to 0.1mm is waay more accuracy than any normal person would notice.

For me, homebuilding my own, if I spin them in my hand and can’t see any wobbles with a close eye that’s plenty straight enough. Any tyre wobble will be greater than that.

I’m more interested in even spoke tension, properly bedded in with no wind up than fractions of a mm trueness. That’s the way to build wheels that last a good long time.

I was coming to say spoke tension

I ended up showing them to the LBS. They were praised on movement. But the rear i never got the tension even. I eventually ended up paying some one else to rebuild the rear. No regrets it was a fun lock down project.

Even/appropriate tension is key. After that as good as I can be arsed to get them before I go crazy or make them worse; all about knowing when to stop really.

As a side note, I’ve had factory/machine built wheels that are spot on and a warranty hand build wheel locally that was dreadful.

I build mine till the join or stickers become the most prominent feature laterally. Quite hard to go past that point without removing the stickers (assuming there is not a point clear all the way around). Though as tthew the even spoke tension is what I really want.

I’m sure from my cytec course the British standard as such is +/- 1mm but on the course your encourage to get it within 0.1mm

I too have seen some right stinkers come on new bikes. Clearly machine built by a drunk machine

Reminds me of the time I got a howler built by a local shop and the clueless clown that built it tried to fob me off by saying industry standard was 3mm. Then threatened to call the police when I suggested we put it in the jig to check. No, really.

+/- 100microns for trueness and roundness (using the park gauges) and spoke tension within 10% all the way around on each side is my approval standard for my own hand built wheels.

would love to get 10% in tension.  Can only ever manage that with a brand new rim and only a little whisky

British Standard is 2mm iirc, but I’d find that pretty unacceptable.

2mm? I stand corrected then. The course was a few years back and I’ve a bad memory!

It might be 1mm either way, for a total of 2mm – it was a long time ago for me too, and I never actually verified what I was told.

Spa Cycles handbuilt wheels are within 0.5mm and 5% tension.

My reason for asking is I got a carbon wheelset recently. There are a number of issues with them, but what’s relevant here is they’re noticeably out of straight and round. Perfectly usable, but at full price they’d be somewhere between Reserve and Enve. For that sort of money I’m expecting dead straight and round. Wondered if I’m being unreasonable. It doesn’t appear to be fixable, not least because both rims have slight flat spots near the valves.

Interestingly they came with inspection sheets showing radial and lateral trueness around 0.25-0.3mm. I can see with a ruler it’s a lot more than that. This is after a shop has worked on them.

Coincidentally I bought a bike from the same brand a couple of years ago and both (aluminium) rims aren’t straight or round because of poor joins.

It might be 1mm either way, for a total of 2mm – it was a long time ago for me too, and I never actually verified what I was told.

From my memory of the course it was 1mm for rim brake wheels and 2mm for disc. Personally, I’d aim for significantly less than that but those figures are probably fine as long as the wheel build is stable (I guess those figures probably hark back to the days when rims were made of cheese).

Most tyres have way more run out than the rims though I’d be ashamed to own up to building something with +-1mm of wobble straight out of the jig!

I’d never make a professional wheel builder. The reason is, I’m not quick enough and I don’t know when to say enough is enough.

As I build wheels for myself and friends, I can take as long as I like. My first aim is +/- 5% tension. Typically I’ll get lateral down to being the sticker or welded rim joint. Vertical about 0.25mm

Utterly pointless when you stick a 2.5″ knobbly tyre on it though.

I’d never make a professional wheel builder. The reason is, I’m not quick enough and I don’t know when to say enough is enough.

Mrs a11y was impressed with my wheelbuilding skills and suggested I do it as a sideline until I explained I’d have to be about 10x faster than I currently am. Normally my lack of speed is a good thing.

Spoke tension meter I bought is both a blessing and a curse. Definitely improved my wheelbuild quality but prolongs the build as I don’t know when to stop…

Most people just reading thread the title and going “Hey I’m great me!” when the OP is asking about FACTORY BUILT or OEM wheels, not self built!!

What you have isn’t acceptable. There was a wheel building thread recently – a video was posted where the young wheelbuilder said he could buld wheels in 15 minutes, but they have to be perfect. Perfect is what I’d expect with any bought wheels. Expecially carbon! Surely carbon is easier to build straight than alu? No experience myself with it, but the last pair of DT Swiss wide rims I did were so easy as they seem to want to be true!

Sounds like your shop got the work experience lad to knock them up as part of his training!

From my memory of the course it was 1mm for rim brake wheels and 2mm for disc.

That’s ISO spec for new bikes yes, or 0.7mm for road bikes with either brake.

My first aim is +/- 5% tension.

This is where most ‘bought’ wheels fall down.  I had a set built by Roger Musson many years back and they were tight and even – stayed true the whole time I had them.

Wheels I bought from https://www.fun-works.com/ were a bargain for the parts (I wanted EX1501 but with j bend spokes) but the tension is all over the place.  I keep thinking about taking them apart and starting to tension them from scratch myself but haven’t committed the time and far from sure I’d do a better job

here are a number of issues with them, but what’s relevant here is they’re noticeably out of straight and round. 

If I’d bought them retail, I think I’d send them back if possible. There’s plenty of nice wheels out there to buy.

For my own wheels, I’m not super fussed about lateral trueness (I’m sure 1mm either way is fine with discs), but radial is crucial. I want to be able to spin the rear wheel up to speed in a stand without turning the frame into a bucking bronco.

(which is a shame as I find radial truing much harder than lateral 🙁 )

ive built a few wheels of my own now, and with new, straight rims, and clean spokes its not hard to get them within 2mm in a spare frame or fork with zip ties for a guide.