Originally Posted by dutret
There goes thier stellar reputation. Pinging is a sign of a poorly built wheel as is one thats out of true before it's even ridden. Minor truing should not cause pinging. I agree with the assement that they forgot(or never bother) to do any stress relief or didn't tension them properly. Take them to an lbs and have the tension checked.
Don't jump the gun there, spanky. Almost every new wheelset will ping a bit as you ride them, unless you're riding something like a ksyrium. Stress relieving them to seat the nipples on the stand is good, but won't always mimic the forces incurred when riding. Also, even the best handbuilt wheels will have a tiny bit of spoke windup, which will make a ping as they return to a neutral position.
If the pinging is bothering you, take the wheel out of the fork and place it flat on the ground or rest the axle on a sturdy bench or tabletop. Grab the rim at the 9 and 3 oclock position and press really damn hard, go ahead and stand on the rim if you want; it's not going to hurt anything. *ping* Rotate the wheel a few degrees so your hands are above a different set of opposing spokes press again *ping*. Work your way around until you've gone around the entire wheel.
Flip the wheel onto the other side and repeat.
It's what I do when I build my own (fantastically true
) wheels, and it's a good idea to do it after any significant truing on an older set.
for the record, customers coming into the shop with a new set of wheels asking for individual spoke tension to be measured with the park or wheelsmith gauge makes mechanics want to shoot themselves in the face