B1105

Has anyone used the Park Tensionmeter? Any good? Its priced well, and I dont like my shops tensionmeter, some old kind. I've used the Wheelsmith one at Barnett's, but its about 3x the price of the Park.

Just looking for some feedback, also, how is that park basic truingstand? Ts-7? And the dishing gauge it comes with?

Thanks

Byron

B1105

I've also been looking at these two stands, any feedback on these?

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...egory_ID=4221#

https://www.performancebike.com/shop/...tegory_ID=4221

AndrewP

The Park tensiometer is very easy to use. I havent tried any other makes but it is surely easier than plucking the spokes and judging the note. The musical method may be OK for getting relative tension of all the spokes, but is not much use for telling you the kg tension.

legalize_it

DT swiss makes an AWESOME one that we use at my shop, but it costs like a million dollars!

dirtyscratches

I have a Minoura Pro truing stand which I'm told is the same thing as the second one. Some people say it's junk. It's not as nice as the Park truing stand, but you can definitely use it. You have to bolt it down or use C clamps to a table or it wont' be very usable. You'll also need a dish stick.

phantomcow2

i actually just ordered a TS-7 today. Got it for 65 shipped. even though its a bit more hten the minoura my understanding is that its beefier and comes with the dishing tool . I hope im satisfied.

531Aussie

I have one on loan at the moment from my local shop, and I WANT ONE!!

I was just gunna use it for one of my new wheels, but I've gone nuts and I've retensioned all my wheels

LittleGinseng 

I use the Park Tensionmeter and it does the job well enough without having to pay a kings ransom for the Wheelsmith or the DT meter.

dirtyscratches

The thing I didn't like about the TS-7 is you have to flip the wheel to true each side.

EagleEye

B1105, the Spin Doctor Truing Stand is on sale for $30, you can't beat that! I've actually used this stand and it was fine, but then I got a TS-2 for xmas, and there's no comparision.

lotek 

I've got the Minoura and it works just fine.
Been thinking about the tensiometer as I don't have
perfect pitch and my wheels sound like crap.


Marty

Bokkie

Could be you ride like crap!

Scooby Snax

Have you tried an Antares Auto-tune, you can allways adjust pitch that way...?

I was also thinking about that park, I wonder if it would speed up wheel truing... finding those pesky self loosening nipples.

cascade168

I have been using the Park tensiometer. In the end all you want to do is get your spokes in the proper range of tension and tensioned as close to each other as possible (relative tensioning). I suppose you could tension spokes with a piano and a guitar pick if you knew what you were doing ;-)

531Aussie

If it's similar to the DT meter, I just flip the tool and read it upside down

qmsdc15

You could flip the tool, but if it is a truing stand, it's easier to flip the wheel. Is it easier to flip the wheel than use the dishing tool? I never had a dishing tool or a centering truing stand. I did build many wheels with cheap stand, flipping the wheel often while tensioning spokes to keep it centered.

jallen

I am deaf.... I had been planning on getting a truing stand. I have never done this before, but now I am a bit concerned after reading this thread. Do you have to hear the twang of the spokes to be able to tune them up right? That or use a tensionmeter for the spokes, am I understanding this right?

I never thought about that detail.. the twang... Hey, I could tune a guitar if I needed to, all I need are those battery operated tuners to tell me if I am in chord.. Hoping its like that with tuning your spokes

531Aussie

I'm no expert, but I recently built my first wheel (very humpy ), and when I got some guys at three different shops to check my work, none of them listened to the spokes, they went by feel, and they also said a tension meter was unnecessary.

EDIT ....and I'm thinking that different guage spokes would sound different, as would spokes on rims of different depth

soulbike

We've been using the parktool tensionmeted to build most of our wheels. You don't actually use it to build, rather to check that at the end of the build, most of the spokes are in roughly the same tension range.

It is not the best and definitely not the most accurate. Check out the Full Speed Ahead one for the sexiest one with carbon and all! Will work that into shop budget somehow next year.

If you are just starting out in building wheels, the park will work fine. We think it is a necessary component of wheel building, especially if building wheels that have very low spoke counts like ours. If you are building your standard 32 spoked wheels, I would go with the pitch.

We also build most of our wheels with the Minoura stand. Not very stable and we are looking for something else.