Good day all.
This may come off as a strange question, but I'll provide a bit of background as to the motivation for asking. I recently had a wheel fail. Apparently loose spoke tension caused the rim to crack in a couple of spots. This is the opinion of the rim manufacturer (Velocity) and my wheel builder. I have no reason to believe the wheel wasn't built to spec tension wise (110kgf - 130kgf) when I took receipt.
Velocity is warranty replacing the rim, but I'm wondering about how to keep an eye on this moving forward? Up until now, I would check spoke tension every so often simply by check them all by hand and looking for spokes substantially more loose than the others. About once a year, I'd have my LBS check out my bike and I'd always ask them to check wheels for true and spoke tension, though I never provided any manufacturer-recommended specs.
I'm thinking about getting the Park Tool tensiometer to use to check tension. I'll check as soon as I get the wheel as a reference value and then re-check every 1,000km or so, or at least a regular basis. That way, if it loses tension, I can take it to my LBS to correct it. Note that I'm not a wheel-builder, maybe one of these days. I'm just trying to start doing more and more for myself, but not sure I'm ready for wheels until I become more competent in other areas.
Can you all give me some quick feedback to this approach? FWIW, I ride a Disc Trucker and although I'm a heavier rider (220 lbs.) total weight is with spec for my bike and components. Any other thoughts on wheel maintenance would be much appreciated.
Attaching a pic of failure, just for reference.
