My first spoke repair and a "real" wheel true

[bdinger]

I just posted my recap of replacing a spoke and using a truing stand last night up in my blog:

http://optifat.blogspot.com/2007/07/wheel-repair-101.html

Summary, I would highly endorse that any of us who ride a lot invest in a truing stand. I have my eyes on a couple, obviously the Park S-2 that my friend Oliver has is out of my monetary reach but there are others. I'm also going to invest in a spoke tensioner, it's amazing how useful they are.

Great fun, and a good experience. Now to see how long my repair holds :).

[Mr. Beanz]

Good job dude. I'm surprised that mo people don't do it themselves. I bought a cheapie stand at Performance for $29. But I bought the dihing tool too for $12. Would like the fancy schmancy stand but too much tool unles you got a shop IMO. Some use the fancy stand for dishing too. Some say it works, some say it doesn't. I don't care, I got the dish tool anyways.

I built my wheels with a cheapie and the shops use the fancy schmancy stuff. Their wheels lasted me 30 miles and mine 9000 with no problems, so it aint the tools and can be done inexpensively!:D

Reminds me. We just did a 5,000ft climb up the mtns on Saturday. My bud (220) has Mavic Ksyriums ($800). I told him I'd be worried at our weight. He aid they are super duper. He boke a spoke about 3 months ago, Had it replaced, then last week, rim cracked, just like I told him my other riding buddies' had.

So he went and bought the $1200 model cause the shop guy said they were liter and stronger. Did the ride on Saturday and his wheel is all crooked to 7734! Sheeesh! When will they learn?

[bdinger]

Good job dude. I'm surprised that mo people don't do it themselves. I bought a cheapie stand at Performance for $29. But I bought the dihing tool too for $12. Would like the fancy schmancy stand but too much tool unles you got a shop IMO. Some use the fancy stand for dishing too. Some say it works, some say it doesn't. I don't care, I got the dish tool anyways.

I built my wheels with a cheapie and the shops use the fancy schmancy stuff. Their wheels lasted me 30 miles and mine 9000 with no problems, so it aint the tools and can be done inexpensively!:D

Reminds me. We just did a 5,000ft climb up the mtns on Saturday. My bud (220) has Mavic Ksyriums ($800). I told him I'd be worried at our weight. He aid they are super duper. He boke a spoke about 3 months ago, Had it replaced, then last week, rim cracked, just like I told him my other riding buddies' had.

So he went and bought the $1200 model cause the shop guy said they were liter and stronger. Did the ride on Saturday and his wheel is all crooked to 7734! Sheeesh! When will they learn?

Thanks! I think I'm going to pick up probably that same Performance cheapie, as it HAS to be better than what I had been doing before.. aka using the V-brakes :D. I'm going to run it by the household finance director tonight, but I do believe the FedEx guy will be bringing me some new stuff here shortly ;).

I've heard both ways with the Ksyriums, either they are super-strong or they are crap. I don't hear enough of the super-strong or the "in the middle" to ever think of actually riding on them, my current weight or at my goal. My bud is pretty small, and his Motobecane came with some Ritchey wheels. They actually look pretty strong, even if they are lacking, well, spokes! I was like "did they forgot some spokes?" :D

Then again, picking them up, they are lighter with tires than my rear was "naked".. oops.

I think the strength of the wheel is all about the guy who builds it. A LBS tech with a queue of 40 other repairs making $10/hr may not care about that wheel as much as the guy riding it. That is most certainly not to "diss" the LBS, I've had some great service around here, but it's a simple fact. I may have an entire hour to kill obsessing over the smallest mosquito-fart truing "blurb" on my wheel, but the LBS guy just wants to get it to the point where it's safe, and the average joe wouldn't notice anything. Same with tensioning, it seems like that'd take some time as well.

Wheels are quite fun, I'm looking forward to my next hobby within a hobby ;)

[Mr. Beanz]

Only thing I don't like about the Performance cheapie is that if you apply to much pressure to one side while turning the indicator screws, you can move the uprights in that direction. Makes yiou think the rim is not true at taht point. Once I realized it, I use a verylight touch when moving the screws. Now that I know, doesn't make a difference. If I had a place to mount it, I'd go with a bit more expensive model. But usually I just throw it back in the box and up in the closet when I'm done. But I'm happy with the results either way.

[bdinger]

It said on their site that it's good up to a 28in wheel, I'm guessing that it will work just fine with 700c's? Probably not with tires on them, but yeah :)

[Mr. Beanz]

I can true my wheels with the tires on. 700x23's no problem. 28's on the tandem are a bit wide but I can maneuver them in, just can't spell maneuver (maybe?:D)

The separate dishing tool doesn't work with a tire installed.

[ang1sgt]

As a Quality Assurance Inspector in a past life, I used dial indicators on my brake studs while trueing to check for the run out. That was probably over the top but I had the stuff and it worked. I also use a "pluck" method for spoke tension when I am trueing. I've always thought that it was more important to have even spoke tension then to have dead nutz true. I am pretty easy on my wheels and start looking for new ones or re-lace the old ones after the first popped spoke. As long as the rim passes my inspection and the sidewall wear is okay, rebuilding seems to work for me.

Chris

[Mr. Beanz]

I too am a QC dude. I've though about putting indicators on my stand, but neve did. Don't use it that much. The wheels I have built haven't had any problems in over two years so it would be overkill. Only wheel that has popped a spoke is the tandem wheel which was built by the shop.

I rebuilt a wheel that was made by a local high end LBS cause it was junk. I used the same spokes and rim. But when diassembling the wheel, I remove the spokes evenly in order to keep the rim somewhat straight for the rebuild.