Christmas present I wish I hadn't received...

Park Tools spoke tension meter.

I've been building my own wheels for some years now. I've ridden the cobbled Tour of Flanders and the Three Peaks cyclocross on my own wheels as well as countless mtb miles without incident and with wheels remaining round and true.

Turns out after all these years that my spokes have been much tenser than they should have been. Now I'm considerably tenser than I was as I wait for nipples to be pulled through my holes and my flanges to give way. So, should I re-tension all of my wheels or carry on as I was?

Rich

As I understand it, there is a wide range of acceptable spoke tension on most traditional style wheels.
Park Tools will likely aim their guage at the lighter end of acceptable tension to save themselves from the trouble of people trying to claim against them if they damage components while going by their guage.

so if I were you, I wouldn't sweat it too much. I certainly wouldn't back off tension on any wheels that already have some miles in them. Maybe you could use the guage and build to less tension on your next set, if you are comfortable with that.

i think it's more important that your tensions are even around the wheel. (same side obviously). How do they fare on that score?

Roger Mussons wheelpro book has an interesting take on tensiometers.

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What doe sthe book say on tensiometers?

Thanks for that FFTC - you're saying what i thought (and what I wanted to hear). Tensions on each side are fairly even (certainly within the 20% variation that Park state is acceptable).

I've never read Roger Musson's book. I started building by copying other wheels and my builds are usuaully very simple 3 cross 32 hole wheels so I've always done it by instinct - but I think I will pick up a copy.

If anyone is interested, here's a pic of my home made dishing tool - just three pieces of ply, a tee nut and bolt.



Thanks

Rich