Master mechanic ripped my wheel build apart

Guy with 30 years experience looked at my rear wheel last Tuesday. Said my spoke tension was all over the place and I'd ruin the rim in 200 miles. He was right of course but how do you learn to feel even tension without spending years at the truing stand?

2 comments

2 Comments

victorbutler17d ago

Man that stings but also kind of nice that the old guy was straight with you right? I totally get the frustration with trying to learn spoke tension by feel. It took me forever to get any kind of consistency and even now I second guess myself half the time. The trick that finally clicked for me was using a cheap tension meter and just practicing on an old wheel. Pluck the spokes like a guitar string and compare the pitch to what the meter says. Do that a bunch and your ear starts to train your hands. It's boring but it works way faster than just spinning and guessing. Keep at it man, we all started out not knowing what tight even felt like.

wadeyoung17d ago

Gotta say @victorbutler you nailed it with the guitar string thing. I tried that after reading your post and it’s actually helping my brain connect the sound to the feel. I still overthink it though, like I’ll pluck a spoke and think “that’s an F sharp? Or just a really sad E?” My wife caught me humming spokes in the garage and now she thinks I’ve finally lost it completely. But seriously, that cheap meter and the ear training combo is the way. I was just spinning wheels like a caveman before, no clue what I was doing. Thanks for the push, man.