Originally Posted by
Plimogz
Like, if there's a hop in the wheel, with the rim going in towards the hub, but the tension in the spokes all around the hop is already lower than anywhere else on the wheel, could I add (very little) tension in many other spokes in some kind of pattern to pull in the rim elsewhere, and thus push it out at the inward hop? Or maybe pulling the rim to left on one side of the wheel to get some pull to the right on the opposite side?
It seems like there should be cases where this is desirable given a rim which isn't quite perfectly centred and aligned on the hub. (which is the point of the exercise, I guess)
Edit: this is assuming a best case scenario with a nice round, flat rim.
If you have a "nice round, flat rim" you should be able to have a nice round true wheel. It is important to work on radial true while bringing up the spoke tension evenly all around the wheel. It is possible to have even tension with a perfectly round rim and still have an out-of-round wheel. This is why it is important to concentrate on radial true early in a wheel build.
If you plan on doing much wheel work you need a truing stand and a tension gauge.