531 pro
rBotM Winner
All my modest little 'threads' on this forum seem to start with 'i used to be...' and this one is no different! Back in the day I worked in a cycle shop and was pretty handy at the old wheel building. Back then, generally speaking, I would get the wheel to its first stage of tension and true, check the dish, adjust, then stress relieve the spokes by turning the wheel horizontal and applying firm (not excessive) pressure: we had a special wheel tensioning stool for this purpose! I'd then bring it to the second stage, by which time the wheel was pretty much perfect, give it another stress relieve (a few more pings from the spokes but not much), give it the final true, then another pre-stress (by which time there would be virtually no pinging of the spokes), final perfectionist check and it was away: customers reported excellent robust wheels and came back for more.
So what's changed? I just built some Mavic Open Pro's onto Mavic 501's with DT double butted spokes, and if I haven't had to stress relieve the wheels 10 times i've had to do it 20 - every time the wheels ping right out of shape and i'm almost back to the beginning?! I've got it pretty good now - and decided to bed it in by doing about 200 miles of riding - but its still finicky.
Have I lost my touch...no one used to 'tweak a nipple' like me (fnarr fnarr)
So what's changed? I just built some Mavic Open Pro's onto Mavic 501's with DT double butted spokes, and if I haven't had to stress relieve the wheels 10 times i've had to do it 20 - every time the wheels ping right out of shape and i'm almost back to the beginning?! I've got it pretty good now - and decided to bed it in by doing about 200 miles of riding - but its still finicky.
Have I lost my touch...no one used to 'tweak a nipple' like me (fnarr fnarr)