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My shop foreman insisted on using a torque wrench for every single stem bolt, which I thought was overkill until I saw a carbon steerer tube crack on a bike that was just 'hand tight'.
He said 'if you can feel it, it's too much' and after seeing that $800 fork get ruined last month, I have to admit he was right, so what's the one shop rule you all thought was silly but now follow religiously?
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hollym823mo ago
My old boss made us check spoke tension on every single wheel build with a tensiometer. Seemed like a huge waste of time until we stopped getting warranty returns for loose spokes.
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the_sandra17d ago
My grandpa built wheels for 40 years at a shop in Portland and he NEVER used a tensiometer. He'd pluck spokes like guitar strings and tap them with a wrench. Said if you know what you're doing you can feel the tension in your fingers. I've built maybe 200 wheels that way and never had a loose spoke come back. Warranty returns going down could be from a dozen other things - maybe you got better nipples, maybe the rims changed, maybe your boss just stopped taking on customers who ride rough. Tensiometers are great for production shops with new hires but for someone who actually pays attention? Waste of money. Those things drift out of calibration too, so you're trusting a tool that could be lying to you anyway.
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