DRZRM
12-18-2014, 11:52 AM
Forgive the long story.
So I had a very reputable Boston area wheel builder put together a 29er wheelset for me. Apparently I bought the wrong sized spokes for the build (double butted, not too light) and he offered me a good deal on Sapim spokes, heavier round DB on drive side rear and lighter bladed spokes on NDS and front (CX? CX XRay? can't remember). Been happy on them for more than a year but I recently noticed the rear was a bit out of true. Now I've built several sets of 700 wheels for my road and CX bikes, and feel perfectly comfortable truing wheels, but my wheel stand is pretty old and will not take a 29er with a tire installed (I need to pick up those extenders for the Park) and who wants to pull off a tubeless tire to true up a wheel. Anyway, I go to straighten it up in the bike frame. It's disc, does not need to be that perfect, and I have a DT Swiss Tension Meter to ensure I don't go too astray.
I eyeball out the main bump (to the side, no visible hops), there were some non-drive side spokes that were loose, and I bring them up to approximate tension. Straighten out the wheel, check tension on drive side, fine. Listen to thumb nail on drive side spokes and everything is pinging similarly. I find it impossible to get a good reading with the tension meter on the bladed spokes (they measure equally low regardless of difference in tension). When I spin the wheel and run a thumbnail on the spokes I have several that are significantly outliers, two higher in tone (tighter), two lower in tone (looser).
I tried to get these more in line with the rest of the non drive side spokes, and tweaked the wheel overall to keep it pretty true. Again, it is a disc mountain wheel, it does not need to be that true, but I was perplexed by my inability to measure non drive side tension. How do you folks with more experience deal with this.
Thanks
Edit: Well, I feel dumb, apparently I should be measuring tension across the wide part of the blade, not the narrow. As Roseanne Rosannadanna said...never mind. Now I just need extenders and a way to put a 15mm through axle in my truing stand.
So I had a very reputable Boston area wheel builder put together a 29er wheelset for me. Apparently I bought the wrong sized spokes for the build (double butted, not too light) and he offered me a good deal on Sapim spokes, heavier round DB on drive side rear and lighter bladed spokes on NDS and front (CX? CX XRay? can't remember). Been happy on them for more than a year but I recently noticed the rear was a bit out of true. Now I've built several sets of 700 wheels for my road and CX bikes, and feel perfectly comfortable truing wheels, but my wheel stand is pretty old and will not take a 29er with a tire installed (I need to pick up those extenders for the Park) and who wants to pull off a tubeless tire to true up a wheel. Anyway, I go to straighten it up in the bike frame. It's disc, does not need to be that perfect, and I have a DT Swiss Tension Meter to ensure I don't go too astray.
I eyeball out the main bump (to the side, no visible hops), there were some non-drive side spokes that were loose, and I bring them up to approximate tension. Straighten out the wheel, check tension on drive side, fine. Listen to thumb nail on drive side spokes and everything is pinging similarly. I find it impossible to get a good reading with the tension meter on the bladed spokes (they measure equally low regardless of difference in tension). When I spin the wheel and run a thumbnail on the spokes I have several that are significantly outliers, two higher in tone (tighter), two lower in tone (looser).
I tried to get these more in line with the rest of the non drive side spokes, and tweaked the wheel overall to keep it pretty true. Again, it is a disc mountain wheel, it does not need to be that true, but I was perplexed by my inability to measure non drive side tension. How do you folks with more experience deal with this.
Thanks
Edit: Well, I feel dumb, apparently I should be measuring tension across the wide part of the blade, not the narrow. As Roseanne Rosannadanna said...never mind. Now I just need extenders and a way to put a 15mm through axle in my truing stand.