Originally Posted by
geachyguy
Hi,
I would like to start building my own wheels. I have been truing wheels for a long time and can do that pretty well, so it the step up to wheel building relatively small?
Also, I have seen in other threads that sometimes it's cheaper to buy a complete wheel, then de-tension and re-tension the spokes. If a wheel you buy is true already, why do you need to bother de-tensioning and re-tensioning?
What determines if the wheel holds it true or not?
Many (most?) machine built wheels sold on new bikes have insufficient and uneven spoke tension when new. The Bontrager Race Light wheels on my wife's WSD Trek were all screwed up when brand new out of the box. I had to spend an hour truing and tensioning just to get them good enough to ride.