Originally Posted by
Psimet2001
Not normal for Kinlin but I have had 2 customers (out of a few hundred riding kinlins) bring it to my attention. Every time i have run into "real" pulsing it has been caused by over tensioning the rim. you can tell because you will see alternating light and dark patches on the sidewall. They will be "light" right above every spoke all along the outside. if this is the case then take the tension down on your spokes and you'll be fine unless you have already damaged the rim beyond it's elasticity.
One of those customers sent one back for me to investigate and i found the rim was bent in one location from a strike - accounting for the pulsing.
Pulsing is not normal nor indicative of anything other than damage done to the rim by the rider or over tensioning by the builder. Period.
I'll definitely look into it, but the pulsing was apparent immediately upon building. They are laced 24h x2 front, 28h x2 rear. Tension on the front is (according to my TM-1) around 110 kgf on the front, +/- maybe 5, and 120 kgf RDS, +/- 5. I had to bring the rear up this high to get tension on the NDS up to around 60 kgf, which was enough for me to trust not to go slack under torque. According to all that I've read, these rims should be just fine at that tension, and I wasn't close to stripping any nipples while building. Nor have I had any sever impacts, falls or crashes. I haven't pinch flatted even once on this set, and I weigh 145-150, running 100 psi in my gatorskins consistently. Unless the tension is too high, I can't imagine any other reason for the pulse. At speed it's less of an issue, but really annoying while coming to a stop. The pulses feel like they are at a single spot in each rim, big slow pulses, not multiple (each spoke) pulses. I'd love there to be a solution, but just assumed that it was normal.
-Jeremy