Old 07-26-20, 01:09 PM
  #21  
Drew Eckhardt 
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Mountain View, CA USA and Golden, CO USA
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Bikes: 97 Litespeed, 50-39-30x13-26 10 cogs, Campagnolo Ultrashift, retroreflective rims on SON28/PowerTap hubs

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Originally Posted by TheCharm
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.
Learn to build your own wheels.

While time consuming, it's not difficult when you don't need to be fast enough to turn a profit. Jobst Brandt tested his book _The Bicycle Wheel_ by having his two grade school sons each build a pair using it with no additional assistance.

When that is impossible, delegate to a reputable one-person operation where the same hands that earned the reputation build your wheels.

Properly built wheels don't change tension or go out of true unless you bend their rim on a road obstacle.

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.
The tension can't change without affecting true and you will notice that.

Use a $5 cell phone app if you need to verify absolute tension. Input gauge and unsupported span. Pluck a spoke. The app will use a fast fourier transform to convert time to frequency domain, then the dominant frequency to tension.

You can hear the difference between spokes.

Last edited by Drew Eckhardt; 07-26-20 at 04:12 PM.
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