Question for the wheel gurus
08-18-12, 11:28 AM
#26
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I have the exact same wheel set as the OP. Luckily I saved the park spreadsheet after my rebuild and it says that I got mine to 132.3 Avg on the DS, and 78.3 Avg NDS. Not sure if this helps anybody in anyway.
08-18-12, 06:50 PM
#27
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I'm actually going to disagree with this... slightly.
My first mountain bike came with light-duty wheels. During my first year of riding, I bashed them into and through all kinds of solid objects. When I finally got around to doing maintenance on the wheels, they were pretty far from true. Tension was pretty uneven all the way around the rim, so I figured I'd just detension everything and start over. As soon as I released the tension, the rim looked like a Mobius strip! I didn't have the money for a new rim, which was clearly what was needed, so I proceeded to retension and true the wheel. I eventually got it into rideable shape, but it was a battle that took hours.
So if I was wrenching in a shop and a customer brought in a wheel of unknown origin, I too might be a little reluctant to detension it.
My first mountain bike came with light-duty wheels. During my first year of riding, I bashed them into and through all kinds of solid objects. When I finally got around to doing maintenance on the wheels, they were pretty far from true. Tension was pretty uneven all the way around the rim, so I figured I'd just detension everything and start over. As soon as I released the tension, the rim looked like a Mobius strip! I didn't have the money for a new rim, which was clearly what was needed, so I proceeded to retension and true the wheel. I eventually got it into rideable shape, but it was a battle that took hours.
So if I was wrenching in a shop and a customer brought in a wheel of unknown origin, I too might be a little reluctant to detension it.
However, when a client is willing to pay hourly shop rate for a "best effort" I think that a shop would do well to accept the work, even when they question the likelyhood of a successful outcome. Counsel the client on the potential pitfalls, but, provide the best possible effort toward successfully completely the work. Then, if it doesn't work, the client will be happy to pay for new spokes and rims, instead of feeling as though they are being sold a bill of goods to begin with.
Personally, I don't see a neccessity to "detension" the wheel if you're sure that the rim is still in good condition. If the rim is still true detensioning doesn't accomplish much that won't be accomplished through truing and careful tension equalization. What detensioning does provide, is the opportunity to find out if the rim is in fact already a potato chip/mobius loop/taco (like sstorkels's). In which case, all the the tension equalizing and stress relieving in the world isn't going to result in as durable a wheel as if you started with a fresh true rim.
The detensioning step is the preliminary investigation to determine if you have a decent rim to work with, or, require a new rim. IF a new rim is required, then we can discuss the issue of reusing spokes or not.
Unless there is history to this wheel that we are unaware of, or, it is visibly damaged in a way that the mechanic can see, but we can't. I feel as though the mechanic is rushing to, "you need a new rim and spokes, if I'm going to work on it" a bit prematurely.
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08-18-12, 07:01 PM
#28
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I took them in today. He looked at them for about 15 minutes and said he didn't feel as if I needed to do a total rebuild....I just told him do whatever he needed to get them right and went away.
Well see what happens. I have hopes one day to get a more performance oriented bike...maybe over the winter when dealers are more inclined to deal...so if this gets me through the season, then good enough for me.
Well see what happens. I have hopes one day to get a more performance oriented bike...maybe over the winter when dealers are more inclined to deal...so if this gets me through the season, then good enough for me.
