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Spoke Tension


duane

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Hi,

I have recently built a wheel with 26" try all rim on a Pro 2 hub, its nice and straight etc, but I am not sure what final tension I should be aiming for.

Is there a rule of thumb I can use - something like by squezzing the spokes I should only be able to deflect the outer cross by 5,10,15,20 mm ? - currently I recon I get 12mm deflection.

Thanks

Duane.

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I've re-spoked my wheel two times and tighten and adjusted them many times.

If the spokes touches where they cross each other you can hear a knirking sound when the move then I tighten them a little more until it stops.

I tighten the spokes on feel. I screw until I feel resistance then it gets heavy pretty fast, then I tighten it just a little more(about 30 degrees).

After that I check that the wheel is straight and adjust it if needed. After some riding you will start the hear the knirking and then it's time to re-tighten the spokes. You may have to do that two times.

It works fine for me.

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You have to make sure that when you tighten them up, you don't make the wheel go out of tru. I usually go around the wheel and check every spoke's tension,just take the two spokes that touch in the center and squeeze them together, and try to get them as even all around as possible. When it gets hard to turn each one, it's probably as tight as you should get it. I usually have less than 3 mm of movement between spokes.

Edited by Jason222
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I've re-spoked my wheel two times and tighten and adjusted them many times.

If the spokes touches where they cross each other you can hear a knirking sound when the move then I tighten them a little more until it stops.

I tighten the spokes on feel. I screw until I feel resistance then it gets heavy pretty fast, then I tighten it just a little more(about 30 degrees).

After that I check that the wheel is straight and adjust it if needed. After some riding you will start the hear the knirking and then it's time to re-tighten the spokes. You may have to do that two times.

It works fine for me.

Careful with that dude, that sound you hear might be the spokes settling, which is a good thing. When you do up the nipples you also twist the spokes. The sound you hear is the spokes un-twisting and seating themselves better, and does not necessarily mean that you need to tighten your spokes more. When you build a wheel and are tightening the spokes you should periodically lie the wheel on its side, with the axle on the ground and push down fairly firmly. Work your way round your wheel with your hands opposite one another and you will hear the spokes untwisting themselves, then flip the wheel over and do it on the other side. Do this periodically and when you’ve finished because it sometimes takes the wheel slightly out of alignment.

As to tightness, really it just comes with experience, but tight is not good, it puts too much pressure on the rim around the spoke hole which can start to crack and fail. Its hard to exmplain but just tighten it to a comfortable tightness where your not putting that much force into the nipple, and do this gradually working your way round the wheel because tightening nipples on one side will tension spokes on the opposite side.

More info:

http://www.bikewebsite.com/build.htm

http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech/fix/?id=howfix_truing

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Careful with that dude, that sound you hear might be the spokes settling, which is a good....

Hmm... I didn't think about that they un-twist but sounds true now when I think about it. But for me it have gone so far that I could re-tighten the spokes with my fingers and then they where moving a lot and was knirking against each other and when I pushed on them they moved up to a 1-2 cm. And then they where well tightened before I started riding the first time. So it can change a lot when they settle in.

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