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A wheelbuilder told me 40% of his spoke tension complaints come from one mistake
I was talking to a guy who has built wheels for 30 years in Portland and he said almost half of the "wobbly wheel" jobs he gets are just uneven tension from someone tightening spokes by feel. He keeps a tension meter on his bench that cost him $85 and says it saves him about 2 hours a week in re-dos. Do you all check tension by ear or do you actually meter it?
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ben_fisher7d ago
Your wheelbuilder buddy is spot on. I chased a wobble for two hours on a rear wheel once, kept tweaking by feel, and it turned out one side was way tighter than the other the whole time. Bought a cheap tension meter after that and the guesswork went away. You can pluck spokes all day but your ear can not tell you 100 kgf from 130 kgf, especially with different spoke types. The meter pays for itself fast when you factor in how many wheels you do. Get your numbers even on both sides first, then true the wheel, not the other way around.
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