Which spoke tension meter? (Boring I know!)

As above, I’ve built one wheelset already without one and they’ve held up well so far. I’m planning to build a few wheels for practice then I’m building myself a nice wheelset for the best bike.

Decided to buy a spike tension meter – I’ll go over the wheelset I’ve done already with it and adjust tension accordingly, then use it for the next few builds.

Looking online I can see x tools for £30 on chain reactions (and loads of Chinese import similar style ones for £30 elsewhere), and then the next jump up seems to be Park Tools for just over £60.

Are the £30 ish ones fine – or isnthere a definite advantage to going say Park tools?

I’m assuming none of them are wildly accurate at actual tension – but the main use is to check even tension between spokes?

Yes, to some extent you only need to compare spoke tension (assuming you have a reference wheel or otherwise happy with the general tension).  I recently got the Park one but I built several without.  For my first nice (XT/XC717) wheel build I fashioned something from Meccano, which I’m quite proud of so below is a photo :). That wheel is fine despite a hammering.  I checked it over with the Park tool too.  So I think a cheap one will still be useful.  On the other hand at Christmas I built up Open Pros with Alpina F1s and after a few months snapped a spoke at the j-bend.  I read that can be a symptom of low tension, which is why I started using the Park tool.  It might have been a dud but I remain wary of low tension.

Loving the mecchano spoke meter – I think that’s beyond my skills and I don’t have any spare Meccano!

Maybe it sounds like the Park Tools one is the one to go for. I don’t think I’m likely to have an issue with low spoke tension – if anything I’m worried about too much tension and cracking a rim.

Depends what you want – calibration is only important if you want to know the tension (it sounds like you do). You can check eveness with the tool either way.

Park is probably the choice for calibration and ease. Unior do one thats good in many ways, nicely finished and well calibrated and with a calibration wire to keep it so, but it does have some friction in it thats a shame as it means its prone to mis-reads because of that if you use at an angle. The cheap ones like X Tools seem ok but I wouldn’t trust the calibration, but if you had a friend with another gauge like a park or the Unior you could calibrate off that.

I remember using my phone mic, a spectrum analyser app and a chart of resonant frequency vs guage & length (found online somewhere) to measure tension

I’ve got access to 3 park ones and all read slightly different to each other on the same wheel. They’re consistent with themselves though, and that’s all that matters

I use the basic Park one as I was building up a set of Stans Alpha’s which are picky about spoke tension so knowing  the actual tension was useful.

Personally I just try to keep spoke tension even when I’m building wheels (ie absolute value isn’t important, within reason, but consistency is). The least expensive way to achieve this is with a plectrum…

Cheers Ben – I think I’ll just go Park as I want my wheelsets to last and its only £60 at the end of the day.

As above, I’m not willing to trust my judgement with pinging and listening to the tensions, that would require skill!

Going to order Park Tools one today 😃

X-Tools and Park are both based on the Jobst Brandt design, so no point in paying more for the Park one. I’ve used  expensive DT Swiss dial ones and the Park TM-1 – they both do the same job because the key thing is about getting even tension across the wheel – the fancy stuff will just tell you to 2 decimal places, rather than round numbers. I’ve found I can get to within 5% accuracy by feel, within 1-2% with the TM-1 and <1% with a dial-gauge – the latter you only really need if you’re building 16-spoke, carbon-rim race wheels IME.

They maybe the same design, but are they built to the same tolerance / are either more accurate / calibrated better?

I’ve seen it suggested online that you can get the Park tools one recalibrated from time to time but that the x tools one you can’t.

edit: to add, I’m building 32 spoke mtb wheels – quite robust ones at that.

this fella built a calibration jig for his…

Someone has more engineering skills than I!

The X-tools and Park tension meters are not based on the Jobst Brandt design (at least not the well known one).  I am currently planning a build of the Brandt version so have looked into it.  The main USP of Brandt’s design is that it works irrespective of spoke gauge because the tension and the measurement occur on opposite sides of the spoke.  The gauge is zeroed with the spoke in place but un-stressed, that way when stressed the reading is only deflection, not deflection plus spoke width.  Brandt’s design can, in theory, read the tension based on the sin of the deflected angle without need of a table or calibration (although in practice that doesn’t seem to work all that well ). The X tools and park version require a cross reference.  If the tool hasn’t been tested on the spoke you intend to use you are SOL.

You can just hang a weight on the spoke and note the reading on your tool if you want to calibrate it.

EG hang 90kg 100kg, 120kg and 130kg and note the readings.

At lower tensions the gauge just needs to be consistent so you get even spoke tensions

Indeed.

Who doesn’t have 90kg+ weights at home? 😀

Thanks @joebristol!

@bigyan @cynic-al perhaps find a friend who’s into weight training?  I have a mental picture of 5*20kg discs wired and hanging off the end of a spoke but not sure what I’d attach the top end too (not sure my dad’s workmate would be strong enough!).

I think the weight idea is a bit tricky and hard work – hats a lot of weight! I reckon if I used the 15’s / 10’s / 5’s / 2.5 kg plates I could get to 100kgs but hat would be unwieldy and a nightmare!

Think i stick to a Park Tools tension meter – ordered one from CRC earlier 🤗

I have several tension gauges. Two DT swiss and two sapim gauges. I use the latest sapim gauge. The calibration chart is good but the spring tension on the gauge was not set right from the factory. I happen to have a load cell calibration jig too. So now all 4 of my gauges are properly calibrated. I can drop three and still have one to use.

The park guage is o.k. it need calibrating though. the main problem is if it is used regularly. it becomes sticky after a while. fine for occasional use but if you are like me and build every day the park guage us limiting. when i started building wheels i used the park guage but had to measure three times to be sure of the reading i got.

I’m going to be a very occasional wheel builder – got 2 sets to build in the next 6 months or so. Hopefully it’ll be ok for this 🤞

I have a mate who is a calibration engineer – I may ask him if it’s something he could calibrate at work if required…..