mynameisnotdrew

Howdy folks,

I'm in the process of building my first wheel, and I have a persistent vertical *ping* right at the seam of the rim. There isn't a large lump, though there is a visible hop on the stand, and when running my finger across the seam, I can notice a rough line. I'm afraid of stripping the nipples and/or breaking or twisting the spokes, but the bloody thing won't come into true.

Are seams normally difficult to vertically true? Does it have something to do with the quality of the rim? Its a Sun CR18.

seely

Thats pretty common on a cheap rim actually. I wouldn't worry about it, and if your spokes are so tight you are worried about stripping the nipple, something isn't right. You shouldn't need that much tension at all.

AndrewP

Try reducing the spoke tension on the spokes about 45 degrees either side of the joint, but you dont want more than about 10% variation in spoke tension around the rim.

Astra

Yeah, I'm no wheel building expert but those symptoms sort of suggest too much tension all round the wheel. Either that or a really iffy rim .