Originally Posted by
70sSanO
I never used a tension gauge for years. If you are on a desert island you are probably out of luck. But if you can get your “hands” on other wheels you can get a feel for the amount of tension by squeezing the spokes.
That said tension becomes more important as spoke count goes down. With a 32/36 hole rim, you can probably get close enough. I wouldn’t attempt a 20 spoke wheel just by feel.
Remember Jobst Brandt’s book is probably 35 years old. I used it 30 years ago for my first wheel build.
John
Thanks John, it's not exactly a desert island, but the only "out of factory wheels" i've seen were on modern bikes with much fewer spokes.. unlike the 36-hole rims i have.
Originally Posted by
rosefarts
So I've never had one. I build a fair amount of wheels for myself and always have had good luck. No failures and everything stays true. I only weigh 140 but I do ride pretty hard.
I guage my squeezing spokes together and how it feels with the spoke wrench.
On a lark, I bought a tension meter for $25 on eBay. It showed up today. No time to actually redo anything but a quick check on few wheels revealed tensions all over the place.
I'm actually pretty good at this stuff, I was pretty surprised how wildly off they were.
That's the bad news. The good news is it gives me a project to work on. I have 6 wheels in regular use I've built.
Like I said, everything has always been great. Maybe it's because it doesn't matter or maybe it's because I'm so light.
I weigh 80kg (175lb) and i would like to get lighter but i doubt it's my weight that keeps causing the cracks in my rims.. Have fun with re-tensioning your old builds and don't forget to drop by to share your impressions on "tight" is tight enough
I guess my question should be reformulated : how do over-and-under tensioned wheels feel like ? When does one feel "ok, now it's too tight/too loose" ?