Originally Posted by
OneIsAllYouNeed
I don't have much confidence in this new wheel. The CR18 rim is pretty shallow (read: not stiff). The rim flexes a lot, which fatigues the spokes. It's been a while since I built one, but I don't recall it being particularly true from the factory. That explains some of the varying tension readings. The tension variation spoke to spoke is a lot higher than I allow when building wheels.
Neither do I. The spokes have quite a bend coming out of the nipple. All the pre-built wheels I have the spokes are straight. All I need is for it to last 2-3 paychecks, which has been my average between rebuilds so far. I just don't think my local wheel builders know how to actually build wheels (outside of racing wheels). This is now my fifth store and the results are the same. At this point I have run out of bikeshops in a reasonable distance.