sean.hwy

Looking for recommendations on a Spoke Tension Meter.

After you break a spoke on a wheel,what do you do?
- measure all the other spokes
- get the avg
- install the new spoke with the avg tension from the other spokes ?

or try and find the specs on your wheel ( not even sure it's possible on some older wheels, third parties that just grab random parts )
and install new spoke and tension all the spokes to spec

Andrew R Stewart 

Building, truing and tensioning wheels by numbers only is missing a fair amount of why/what a wheel lasts and is so strong.

When I replace a spoke I tension the replacement up to the pluck tone of the same sided spoke around it. Then i fine tune the various spokes' tensions to best balance trueness with stability. A wheel with equally tensioned spokes (per side) might not be very straight and a straight wheel might have the tensions all over the place. Andy

sean.hwy

When replacing a broken spoke better to take it to an expert until I learn how to build and true wheel?
Is that correct ?

cxwrench

Install the spoke. True the wheel, don't worry about numbers at all. I'm sure you'd rather have a wheel that's true rather than one that has a new spoke at exactly 'xxx' tension that may or may not be true.

sean.hwy

I am clueless. That's why I am asking. I don't know how to true a wheel yet either. I will watch some videos on how to true a wheel then.

Is the spoke tension meter for only building a wheel from scratch ?

Bill Kapaun

Non disc front wheels will most often have equal length spokes on both sides.
A rear wheel will typically have a spoke that's about 1-2mm longer on the NDS than the DS.

Remove one of the good spokes on THAT side and take to the LBS and buy another spoke the same length.
Replace the broken spoke with the amount of tension that gets the wheel back to a reasonable state of true.

IF you start breaking spokes on a regular basis, time to replace all of them. They have all been through the same fatigue cycles.

You really don't need a tension meter to replace 1 spoke.

hrdknox1

The first wheel that I built I used a tension meter and it proved to be a frustrating ordeal because tensioning the spokes equally on each side threw the wheel out of true. I couldn’t get the tension and the trueness together.

I would not be concerned with spoke tension when replacing a spoke. What is most important is to tension the new spoke until the wheel is true at that location. This location is the most significant location where truing is needed. Then proceed to true other spokes if needed to form a perfectly true wheel. Occasionally you should check the wheels trueness because spokes loosen from nipples turning. A good idea is to use spoke prep on the spoke threads to make it easier to turn nipples if you need to adjust a spokes tension at a later date, and it serves to prevent vibration from turning the nipple.

ThermionicScott 

It would depend on the wheel. If it were one of my lovingly handbuilt wheels, I'd go into the weeds to diagnose why the spoke broke before fixing it. But if it were a relatively generic wheel with commodity parts and an unknown past, I'd probably just grab a spare straight-gauge spoke from a donor wheel, true it up, give it an aggressive stress-relief to find any other weak spokes, and call it good.

In any case, I would use the tensiometer because I have one, but you probably don't need one for what you're doing.

cxwrench

If the rest of the wheel is in good shape and round/true you don't need to know anything about tension. Replace the spoke and make it true. Super easy...not tight enough it won't be straight. Too tight it won't be straight. Just right, it'll be straight. If you were building a wheel, the tension gauge is essential. I've built hundreds and hundreds of wheels and I use it on every one.

sean.hwy

thank you

Tawraste666

If you have a budding interest then why not start here?
I did the same thing, slowly gathering tools and experience. Even taking in knackered wheels to muck about with, building trueing stands and calibration rigs.
It's a lot of interesting fun!

pdlamb

The only way to gain experience building and truing wheels is to work on building and truing wheels. If you want to get there, here's a good place to start.

The way I've replaced my last several spokes (one at a time from overshifting into the wheel) is to mark the new spoke with a bit of masking tape. Tension the new spoke, check the tension of the new spoke and the one on either side of it. All three should be close. Stress-relieve the entire wheel (takes what, two minutes?) and check for true. If none of the other spokes have unscrewed (i.e., I wasn't 30 miles from home when the one spoke broke), the wheel is likely true and I'm done. Otherwise, check the entire wheel's spokes' tension, and re-true as necessary.

cyccommute 

Not masking tape. Steal some bag ties from the grocery store. Easier to put on, easier to take off, and reusable. If you go to Whole Foods, I’m sure you can find some handmade, artisanal ones.

cpach

When replacing a spoke I'll usually set it to match the tension of its paired spoke (by ear in my case, but no reason you can't do the same with a tension meter. In fact I do this when I have to use a spoke of different profile) Then I true the wheel, balancing tension as I go, and check for any other areas of significantly uneven tension. Generally I consider a spoke replacement job to not be about changing overall spoke tension although I will check that and re-tension if things are way off.

Prowler 

I agree that once the new spoke is installed they all look alike and I tend to loose track of where the new one went. My easy solution is to salvage the cloth rim strip from a scrap wheel. Adhesive backing that does not harden/dry up. When I install the new spoke, and the one I removed for a length determination, I flag both with a short piece of rim strip. Place flags a couple inches above the nipple so you have room to operate the nipple wrench. Tension those two spokes then continue to focus on them until your done (per advice from Andrew R Stewart ). Remove the flags (dispose or store and reuse) the test ride. The adhesive works just well enough then is easy to remove, leaving no residue.

Jeff Neese

Except there's no reason to think the rest of the spokes are tensioned properly. He did break a spoke, after all, and the number one cause of spokes breaking is uneven spoke tension. That entire wheel should be gone through, trued and tensioned like it were a new build. One broken spoke usually leads to another unless you fix the root cause. We all know it's possible to "true" a wheel but with spoke tension all over the place and a wheel that isn't very strong.

pdlamb

I agree with most of this, actually. However, it's usually pretty easy to pluck a few spokes on the wheel to make sure there's not a more that are loose. And if there are, I'll catch them in the stress relief phase.

Most (maybe all?) the spokes I've had to replace in the last few years arose from bending the derailer hanger in a crash, then overshifting the chain into drive-side spokes. I've had a bunch of spokes break from undertensioning, but never an inch or so from the hub. The tension-induced failures are either at the spoke head or at the base of the threads. So for my situation, matching adjacent spokes' tension is a useful shortcut.

cxwrench

The very first word in my post is 'If...'. If the wheel is straight and round the tension will be at least fairly even. I'm pretty sure that would lead someone to believe that if it isn't then it will need more work.

KerryIrons

Yup. Most of the time (assuming the wheel was true before the spoke broke and there was no damage that caused the break) you can just get the spoke to the same "tone" as comparable spokes and you are good to go.

Calsun

I have replaced the spoke and then compared the tension when squeezing it and a adjacent spoke with another pair of adjancent spokes on the rim. It got me close enough in tension to protect the rim. Once I got home I used a truing stand to verify alignment of the rim and hub. This is not a simple process as one needs to loosen spokes on one side and tighten them on the opposite side and keep the hub centered inside the rim.

For long trips I have used Scotch tape to attach a couple spare spokes to the bike pump so they are available if needed.