Serious question about failed wheel true with a spoke tension meter

I was in my garage last Saturday trying to true a rear wheel for a customer's commuter bike. The spoke tension meter kept reading way high on the drive side, but I was like nah it's fine. Then I finished the true, put it on the stand, and the rim looked like a potato chip. Spent 45 minutes loosening every third spoke and starting over. What finally worked was following the Park Tool tension chart exactly for a 32 spoke wheel at 100 kgf. Has anyone else fought a wheel that just would not hold true after building it up?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_white26d ago

The part about following the Park Tool chart exactly is what finally clicked for me too, I used to just wing it by feel and ended up chasing spokes all day. Once I stopped guessing and started trusting the numbers, the build time dropped way down and the truing actually stayed put (which is the whole point, right?).

joel_hall1725d ago

Nah, I still think feel matters more than numbers, you can't measure spoke windup with a chart.

lily7026d ago

Yeah, the "chasing spokes all day" part hit home for me... that's exactly what I was doing before I learned to trust the meter. What finally clicked was doing a stress relief pass with the wheel off the stand after every tension round. I'd squeeze pairs of spokes together hard, then recheck the true and dish. That little step stopped the rim from springing out of shape later. Also, I started lubing the nipple threads with a drop of oil before tensioning, and it helped the readings stay consistent instead of jumping around.