Wheel building help...why didn't my wheels stay true?
 

Ok please read the write up before you say I didn't stress relieve the wheel...because I did...a bunch of times during the building process.

SO the build is like this: Mavic Open Pros, laced 3x with Wheelsmith double butted spokes, brass nipples to Campagnolo Chorus hubs.

During the build process I stress relieved the wheels a lot and several different ways...I made sure I didn't have spoke wind up by going past my mark and turning the wrench back and I used Boeshield T9 on the nipples (non drive side rear was left dry per Sheldon's write up). I stress relieved the following ways. Grabing pairs of spokes and squeeze together hard...Sheldon's old crank arm technique...sitting the wheel on the hub and pressing down (rotate the wheel around repeating and then flipping and doing the other side).

When I was done my tensions were all very even, the wheels were nice and true and round. I was all happy but needed to wait for the tires and tubes...so they sit for 4 days. Yesterday I got my tires and mount them up...then I throw them on the bike and I give them a spin...I can see the wheel isn't true at this point...WTF? :wtf: :mad:

Both the front and rear are pretty much the same amount out of true now.

Why did this happen? What can I do or what did I do wrong during the build to cause this to happen? :(

Possibly not enough tension.
With double butted spokes I hold each spoke with pliers to avoid windup.

Al

Possibilities:
- As noted, not enough tension. You may have "tweaked" the wheel out of true putting the tires on if the tension is too low.
- Are you sure you're not looking at the tires, rather than the rim? The tires may not be sitting true on the rim (bit of inner tube caught under bead, for example) or may not be perfectly even just due to the vagaries of moulding rubber.

Ok tension...per my Park Tension meter the front was between 21 and 22 as was the drive side rear...I believe this should be plenty of tension as it equates to like 110 kgf.

Yea I am sure I am not looking at the tires...I took them off before putting the wheels back into my truing stand...for sure they are out of true now.

Check the tension with the tires fully inflated if you haven't already. 110 kgf is really not a lot of tension when using double butted spokes. If it was me I'd go higher.
Try blue Locktite on the threads, it won't hurt anything and you'll still be able to re-adjust the spokes as needed.

Al

Ok I just checked the Park chart...22 is 122kgf and 21 is 109 kgf From what I have read you should take the tension with no tire as it lowers the tension.

Also as part of this...I just bought a bike for my wife that came with a set of 28 spoke open pros. DT swiss double butted spokes 2x front and 3x rear. The tension on the front is so low the numbers don't even start on the Park chart...of course that wheel is nice and true. :(

I use stainless steel spokes.....

sorry... i use stainless steel nips ( I hit the send button trying to catch my falling bourbon)

You're a pretty heavy guy, right? (if not, I apologize for confusing you with someone else :)) It could just be that the spoke heads fully seated themselves on your first ride, loosening the tension a bit. Perhaps your stress relieving wasn't quite vigorous enough?

Just for the record:
1) how much deviation from true is the problem in mm?
2) what is the tension in the spokes before you true the wheel?
3) does the deviation from true get less each time you re-true it?

"The tension on the front is so low the numbers don't even start on the Park chart...of course that wheel is nice and true. " Is it possible you are not using the thing correctly. Check the tension by squeezing pairs together, does that reading make sense.

When you inflate the tire, on some rims this will drastically reduce the spoke tension. You have your answer. Re-true with the tire inflated.

Hey I reselmble that remark. :D

But seriously they haven't been ridden yet...this was from sitting in the basement on the bike...suspended (so no weight on the wheels) for 4 days.

I will give you that maybe my stress relieving wasn't vigorous enough...but I am squeezing them pretty good.

1) a couple mm maybe
2) woops too late
3) I have only re-trued it this one time...so we will see tomorrow maybe?

Lets not confuse that last part...that isn't a wheel I built...but yes I am using the tension meter correctly...they feel that soft by squeezing them. Not sure what to do there...I am not going to ride those wheels and neither is my wife...if they had been 32 spoke I would mess with them but with me being a recovering clyde (I am 205 right now down 25 lbs this year) and my wife not going to ride the bike those wheels are on for at least a year (she is 3 months pregnant so no drop bar riding) I was going to sell them. But I don't want to sell a bad set of wheels.

Nice job on the weight loss. You've obviously lost a lot since I last remember it being discussed (205 isn't what I'd consider "pretty heavy").

Sorry, I took "give them a spin" to mean you went for a short ride. I need more sleep.

Whatever the conclusion, I'll be happy to read about it as I embark on my first full wheel build in the next week or so. I've done plenty of truing, spoke replacing, and a complete de-tension and re-tension (new nipples) on some wheels but I'm sure this be a learning experience.

where are you in Central PA? I'm 5 miles from the geographical center of PA myself.

I think you just stressed them when you put on the tires. They probably needed to be stressed some more. I always just pushed on the side of the rim. I've built many hundreds of wheels, and only had problems doing that with cheap and pre-bent wheels off of huffys and the like.

Sheldon was a bit eccentric. On new wheels, I just put Phil Wood grease on the spokes, and I've been very happy about how that worked out over the years on my own bikes.

You did true after doing the 800 lb gorilla 'stress relieving" on them...a totally unnecessary activity... didn't you?

Another possibility...and straw grasping;)... is that stress relieving late in the build may allow some spring back. I always stress relieve the spokes at low tension just after lacing.

Ok so yea I used the 800 lb gorilla technique (the hands at 3 and 9 hub on eht floor and push).

Mental note...don't ever do that again. :D

unterhousen - I am in State College so not very far from you.

How about prying the spokes with a crank like on Sheldon's site? I really don't think it's really possible to stress-relieve the spokes without vertically/radially loading the rim enough to drastically reduce tension to let the spokes unwind. Like put the 800-lb gorilla on the bike and have him ride around the block and run over a couple of speed-bumps. The manual hand-techniques increases spoke-tension, so don't see how that can untwist the spokes. Maybe when you let go of the spokes, the sudden loss of increased-tension may let them unwind.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about it. Just re-true and the wheel should be set for a while. As a test, I've put a thin line of nail-polish across the nipple and spoke to measure spoke-nipple movement over time. You'd be surprized at how much the nipples untwist over time.

maybe I see the basis for a misunderstanding here. When I push on the side of the rim, it's with a force that is well within what a wheel could see in service. 800 pound gorillas need not apply.

OP said he used Sheldon's technique. I don't really understand the exact mechanism that stress relieving counteracts. What I do does not totally take the tension off of any spoke.

I don't see why people get so religious about their methods. I'm keeping mine because they work for me, but I don't expect anyone else to follow. Or I will change if I find something better, not that I build many wheels nowadays. I think I'll try stress relieving at low tension and see if that works for me.

I don't see how I'm doing anything substantially different than Hjertberg, for example, except the stress relieving. I must be missing something subtle in his technique. I do think what I do is a good quality control step as well. On a good wheel, nothing will happen. On a crummy wheel, you can feel it wanting to taco. In that case, I have un-dished a little.

My technique is this: build/tension/true. Stress relieve. True. Stress relieve again. True. Stress relieve. On 99% of wheels, nothing happens on the last stress relieve, and the wheel stays perfectly true. On a good wheel with a straight rim, nothing much happens on the first stress relieve step. I'm pretty sure that a lot of top wheel builders follow these same techniques.

Ok reading that I think I simply needed to do two more truings and stress relieves...I was doing stress relief as I brought the wheel up to tension and into true and just left it at that. I will add this to my building technique and maybe ease up on the 800 lb gorilla. :D

But you ride the bike with tires (hopefully fully inflated), that's what's important and that's how you should check the final tension, dish, and true.

Sometimes the spoke heads (near the hub) have to set.
You see this when you remove spokes from a hub.
The 90 degree elbow makes a mark on the flanges.
New builds always need to set.

Anyway, I don't think that its a big deal.
I know trying to get things perfect the first time is best.

But I always get ping-ching-ding sounds coming out of my wheels when I ride it the first time.
Afterwards I just go back and realign.

I might get flamed for this but... I never use a tension gauge.
The "ping" test is a good rough measure for even spoke tension.
That is where you flick one spoke and the next spoke and so on; listening for the sound.
All of the spokes on one side (eg drive side) should have the same pitch.

You didn't actually do anything wrong, other than expect it to be perfect the first round. :)

i use the ping method and simple stress relieving activity........understand something simple
if the nip does not match the thread on the spoke or y0u have forgot a cross or two( yes., I know you know what your doing) use the tension guage if you have one... but you are building a variable here...I feel that if everything is new-- stainless clean and lightly oiled you shouldnt have to do the gorilla... if this isnt the 100 build on something you've built 100 times before-- imperfection could creep in its ugly head..... the nipples have a knuckle to dig into -- they need to settle--- and used hubs have their imperfection---- If they are rapidly coming loose after every ride then I would say you did something "wrong"---- this is my 2cents worth and I wish you luck-- is there anybody with experience that can eye what you are doing?

I think what we really need here is a good look at your nipples, OP.

It's the rim that determines the proper tension for spoke, isn't it?

Well that's certainly part of it. But I think that with good quality rims there is a large safety factor built into the recommended tension. And from my experience the challenge is to get enough tension into the non-driveside spokes to avoid breakage at the "J" bend due to excess flexture. And with 8, 9, and 10-speed rear wheels the big hub flange offset requires a much higher tension in the driveside spokes center the rim. So depending on what type of spokes I'm using I'll usually have the driveside rear spokes between 130 and 150 kgf with the tires fully inflated. And I've not experienced any rim failures.

Al