Originally Posted by
HillRider
I agree with your recommendations except it appears the OP can't do items 1 and 2 himself.
Taking the wheels to the LBS to have that done is a good idea.
+1.....this will also be an excellent chance to judge them with
regard to services. If the tensions are reasonably even and
up close to where they need to be (unlikely), they should tell
you so and the job should cost less.
If they just tell you, "this is what we charge to true a wheel,"
and hand them off to some junior mech to make sure they
are straight but who has no clue about evening the tensions
among the spokes and tensioning high for longevity, you need
to find somewhere else to spend your money.
And the Park tensiometer is about the cheapest reasonable
alternative for doing this and might be worth your money
if you "plane" to ride hard for the next how many years.
Tensioning by ear just don't cut it in my own world.