I've been reading through various brandt archives and came across something that gave me pause for thought:
Originally Posted by brandt
"With 16-spoke wheels, tension is to high to achieve without unloading the spoke.
He goes on to say that
Originally Posted by brandt
You'll understand from that why people don't build 12 and 16 spoke
wheels in their spare time. It requires special equipment to tighten
spokes tight enough (16 spokes about twice as tight as 32) for the
same load carrying ability.
But then he describes a method for doing so:
Originally Posted by brandt
I found that unloading the spoke to be adjusted a better method, and
with a rigid truing stand this is easily done. Since one usually
holds the wheel in position with the other hand, that hand can be used
to displace the rim toward the side from which the spoke approaches.
This is easily done without any any special maneuvers. In contrast,
imagine how hard it would be to grip the spoke near the nipple with
Twist-resist and turn the nipple with a spoke wrench.
So which is it? Is it possible to handbuild 16 or less spoke wheels with the proper tension or not? I wished he'd post on bikeforums.