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Old 05-25-10 | 04:46 AM
  #2  
slcbob
Giftless Amateur
15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,330
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From: MD / metro DC

Bikes: Cross-Check/Nexus commuter. Several others for various forms of play.

Glad it is working for you. I'm 6'5 and close to 240 at the moment , so I was worried about durability when I built my own wheels as part of the fun / experiment when I built my super-commuter. Salsa Delgado Cross (36H rear, 32 front), DT, brass nipples, XT disc front and Nexus rear. They've held up like champs. Trued out a very slight shimmy and checked tension after 500 miles, still doing great after ~3000.

The Salsas came highly recommended but I never heard a bad word about the Mavics, either.

I had been truing and playing with the spoke plucking method of tension for a while, but when jumping into the from-scratch wheel build I sprung for the Park tensionmeter. I was surprised at what difference it made. Feel is only for the grossest tension issues. The pluck method works by tone. I'm no bike wheel guru but do know pitch. Just in experimenting, pitch was a decent start but the tensionmeter would pick up significant (e.g. 20%) differences in same pitch, and same tension in different pitch. My blind guess is something to do with subtleties in the cross and nipple seating changing the tone more than the tension. Perhaps the great builders shape the wheel through that and eliminate those inconsistencies, perhaps the tensionmeter is really best. It certainly mattered for rookie me. Quality rims matter, but not even the best can compensate for a low or inconsistent tension in the build. I think the tensionmeter is what made the difference for me.

BTW, it can be a PITA to use.
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