Originally Posted by
bajaking
A hypothetical, though: is there any factor which can override build quality to some extent? For example, can a 40 spoke, all carbon, double wall mountain bike wheel with fat tires on it built by an unlucky ham-fisted knuckledragger actually be stronger than say a 24 spoke Velocity something-or-other built by a true wheel professional?
100% a well built wheel trumps a poorly built overbuilt wheel, but there is a limit to the materials used that shouldn’t be ignored. But a good builder will take that into account. The builder of your wheel isn’t worth a grain of salt and I would be asking for my money back.
Originally Posted by
rutan74
Now, what I do recommend is that if you find a builder, make sure they do a wheel plot or graph of your spokes and the tension. My builder did my old wheel and then the new wheel and the spoke tension plot showing all the spokes was a rear eye opener. He got all the tension almost equal and the plot of the tension looks very round. If you have one or two spokes over or under, that can cause a problem, so best to graph it.
Park Tools has a tension tool on their website. It’s free, it’s handy AF so there is zero excuse not to be using it. The best thing I ever did as a big guy was jump in the deep end on building my own wheels. A wheels stand and a tension meter and a spoke key and some time on YouTube and you’re off. You could ditch the wheel stand, some are expensive, but some are cheap. Or you can even do the spoke tensioning and alignment in your existing frame. Sourcing my parts from OS which are waaaaay cheaper than here in Oz and doing my own build paid for my stand, meter and tools in one wheelset vs getting a custom wheelset here.