Originally Posted by
mrrabbit
The rim was used already, with miles comes some fatigue. That's a given...
You indicated "pounding" out flat spots so to speak...that's more fatigue.
It took several attempts to get the rim to settle down. Maybe you initially over-tensioned, maybe the tension was too unbalanced...maybe you didn't stress relieve enough...who knows?
You are able to ride it now - ride it until it dies. Seriously. Don't worry about catastrophic failure...this is a high spoke count traditional non-carbon wheel.
When the day comes that even purposely under-tensioning the wheel results in the wheel coming out of true upon inflating the tire - then do a rebuild on a new rim. MA2s and MA-40s should easily be able to give you 40,000+ miles of use over their lifetime - I remember Mavic even stating as such in their tech notes back in the mid-80s in small print footnotes or a back page of sorts.
=8-)
Thanks, this what I was hoping to hear. While I am no where near a wheel building expert, I have built 20 or so wheels and they always came out straight and true and stayed that way. The only reason I even spent so much time with the rim is because of it's vintage.
I also am in agreement with FBinNY
MA2, are older rims, and not as inherently rigid as modern rims. That makes them much more sensitive to variations in spoke tension. They also won't tolerate the kind of tension that modern (heavier) rims do.
The rim feels almost fragile and seemed to react to even the smallest of adjustment (I'm probably overstating this a little as it was more of a perception). I did tighten the spokes on the taught side thinking it would better support a less rigid rim, but there are no signs whatsoever of any rim fatigue. Further it's off road days are over and hopefully will enjoy a long retirement of long rides on the roads the through the agricultural landscape of Santa Cruz and Pajaro.