Originally Posted by
TODD HAMMONS
quoting what you said "a well built rear wheel will have all the drive side spokes within 5-10% of each other" can you please explain further and what is stress relieving?
Stress relieving is a process that insures the spokes are not "wound up". This is not an easy thing to describe. It's covered, in depth, by both Schraner and Brandt. I'd suggest you read up (from those guys) on this process. Sorry for bailing out on this one, but it IS a very necessary step and I could show you in seconds. But, to describe what's going on is kind of difficult.
Relative tension is a bit easier. For example, if the maximum tension on your rim (as specified by the rim manufacturer) is 110 kgF, then you take 10% of that and subtract it. So, the high end of your range would be 110 and the low end would be 99 kgF (= 110 - 11). If you want closer relative tension you would use a 5% range. So, that range would be from 110 to 104.5. The closer, the better. The narrowness of the range is going to be determined, somewhat, by the quality of the rim. Higher quality rims tend to be easier to get into narrow range.