Originally Posted by
miki150
I'm afraid the problem will show up again, as the NDS spokes in my new wheel are very loose. Two were even completely loose after I had done about 100kms. Luckily on a paved road. The wheel has been built in a small family shop, the guy having a glass of beer next to him. The spokes are probably not DT or Sapim!
Is there a fool proof way of tightening the spokes that I could use by myself? I'm about to hit gravel roads again. The other option is look for another shop and rebuild the wheel, as I'm in a bigger city now. But it's hard to ensure the quality of service. They always do a bad job here knowing you will never return to complain. And I'm tired of thinking that this and that bike shop f***ed my bike up (has happened several times).
It isn't that hard to learn this. And once you do, you won't have to be at the mercy of these dodgy bike shops.
You need a spoke wrench with the right fit. Make sure it's good and snug; otherwise, you can ruin the nipples. Spoke wrenches come in several slightly different sizes, for different nipples, and you want the right one for the nipples you are using.
Carry some extra spokes, just in case (the best quality you can find down there).
Once you develop a feel for it, it isn't that hard to check and adjust the tension.
You want the tension to be even on each side. The NDS will be looser; but the spokes should still be well tensioned, and as close as possible to equal in tension all the way around.
You can pluck the spokes and get an approximation -- all spokes on the same side should sound the same, or as close as possible.
You want to avoid loose spokes. They fail much sooner.
As you gain experience, you will also develop a feel for how tight they are, and how tight they should be. If you grip a pair of spokes in a 'handshake' grip, and squeeze, you can feel the deflection, and the resistance to deflection (this is how most tensiometers work). After a while, you just get a feel for this, and you can use it in addition to the plucking method.
It helps to find some good, well-built, well-tensioned wheels. Pluck the spokes. Squeeze and deflect. Gain some familiarity....
It isn't that hard; you just need some hands-on experience.
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If you take a couple of pieces of thin, bendable wire, and attach one end to the back of the rack, near the rim, and then make a small loop on the other end, and bend the wire so the loop is very close to the rim, it can serve as a guide for truing the wheel. If you position it near the outer edge of the rim, it can also serve to gauge the roundness of the wheel -- so you have both left-right, and in-out gauges; and if you repeat on the other side, you have gauges for both sides. I just leave these wires in place (after bending them just a little bit, so they are out of the way), and they are ready to be used whenever needed. You can check your wheels easily at any time this way.
You can hang the bike from a sturdy tree branch or some other support, using parachute cord, rope, straps, or whatever you have. Or you can flip the bike over.
Good luck with it, and please let us know how it goes.