Thread: Spoke tension
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Old 12-14-21 | 11:09 AM
  #36  
Russ Roth
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Joined: Dec 2019
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From: South Shore of Long Island

Bikes: 2010 Carrera Volans, 2015 C-Dale Trail 2sl, 2017 Raleigh Rush Hour, 2017 Blue Proseccio, 1992 Giant Perigee, 80s Gitane Rallye Tandem

Originally Posted by Jeff Neese
Reading through all of these replies, it's clear that tensioning wheels is no longer universally understood or practiced in a lot of bike shops these days. What do these shops do before they deliver a new bike to a customer? They don't check wheel true and spoke tension any more? Very few wheels come perfect right out of the box, especially with today's machine-built wheels.
there isn't much to check the way there used to be. Every bike needs wheels checked for true, rarely they aren't reasonably round. Just spin the wheels to check axle tension, true as needed and assemble. Tensioning wheels has never been universally understood, this oddball notion that every bike tech at a shop knew all the ins and outs of wheelbuilding is something made up about "the good old days" of bike shops. I worked with a guy who spoke often of the glory days of the bike boom of the 70s and what absolute crap the bikes were. But even then they were selling them so fast they were largely slapping them together, bending whatever was needed for them to ride straight and sending them out the door. Newer wheels need less work due to better materials and better machinery. True them and send them, most will never be ridden enough to matter.
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