SethAZ 

Yeah, thanks FBinNY, I should have worded that better. The comment on taking the hub itself down and greasing and adjusting was less a call for help and more of a comment on how surprisingly tightly the whole thing was assembled at the factory, and how few knowledge resources there are out there (especially from Shimano) on how this new system actually works. It was so tight when I first tried taking off the end cap using the 5mm allen wrenches that I stopped because I was worried maybe there was something I was missing and I was about to break something.

After reassuring myself by research and reading that in fact I was doing it right, this morning I broke the torque on that end cap, added grease to the bearings, adjusted the cones, etc. It took a shocking amount of force to break that torque.

And the "digital" adjustment system is about as "digital" as a "digital rectal exam" is, which is confusing for us techie types. It's digital in the sense that you turn the cone with your digits, ie: fingers, and don't need any cone wrenches or anything. I had thought maybe it was a click-adjustment type of thing, or that one could do it completely without tools, perhaps even while still on the bike. In fact you still take the wheel off the bike, still remove the skewer, you pull the end cap off with 5mm allen wrenches, then you pull the black plastic castelated cover off (not losing the little washer in the process), and there's the cone, with toothed outside edge. You simply turn the cone by hand, put the keyed plastic cover back in place (which locks the cone so it can't turn anymore), put the cap back on, replace the skewer, mount it up, test it again, rinse repeat until perfect.

I do actually really like the digital adjustment. It's nicer than using cone wrenches, certainly. Not exactly what I thought it would be just reading Shimano's sales pitches, but it's still quite nice.

speedevil 

The method you describe of adjusting the preload on the bearings seems simple enough and should work fine. I'm sold on the Campy method of adjusting the preload because you do it while the wheel is clamped in the dropouts. Not that my opinion should sway you to look at Campy hubs, but their method is quite elegant as well.

There's more than one way to skin a cat (set the preload on wheel bearings).

SethAZ 

A quick followup. The TM-1 came. I followed advice from this thread and found an old 26" wheel that will never be used again, labeled three spokes on it with tape, and then measured their tension and wrote it down, so that in the future I can compare the TM-1 with that wheel and see if it's changed. Whether it's strictly accurate or not I don't know, but as long as its consistent I'll be happy.

I de-tensioned all the spokes on my new wheel, loosening the nipples until I could see the first thread on the spokes. I went around the circle first doing three full turns, then two full turns, then one full turn, and as soon as I had some tension I picked the tension of the first spoke after the valve hole, and went around the circle and brought every spoke to that same tension (a 17 on the TM-1, or about 70kgf). Then I proceeded a half-turn at a time or so, picked a new tension (20 on the TM-1 scale), brought them all up to that same setting, then finally went around the circle and brought every spoke up to a 21.5 on the scale, which is around 110 kgf.

When they were all within the margin of eyeball on the scale at 21.5, I put the wheel in the front fork of the bike and looked at the wobble. There was no radial wobble that I could detect, and the total lateral wobble amounted to around 2mm or so. As I rotated the wheel I adjusted the front brake pads so that at the high point of the wobble, the brake pad touched the wheel and stopped it. I'd then do very small tweaks of tension (like 1/16th of a turn, sometimes as much as maybe 1/8th of a turn) starting at the point where the pad stopped the wheel and feathering the adjustment away from that point two or three spokes in either direction. I'd then respin and examine what the change had done.

In this way I kept the radial wobble of the wheel at an undetectable level (doesn't look like any to my eyes) and I nudged the total lateral wobble down to less than half a milimeter or so. I decided to call it good. I haven't measured the tension on the spokes since I did this, mainly because I didn't want to get sucked into the mind trap of thinking I needed to go back and tweak it a lot more in the interest of consistency. I started the truing with the spokes as nearly identical in tension as I could judge on the relatively crude scale of the TM-1, and then trued the wheel using very small adjustments. So I think that whatever small variance in final tension may exist, it won't be all that large, and probably couldn't be helped. At least not by someone of my newbish skill level.

When I rode the wheel again yesterday afternoon I heard not one single ping from it. I'd squozen spokes together and whatnot as I tensioned it up, and heard several pings during that stress relieving, so that by the time I rode it, apparently it was good. The wheel feels solid, stiff, confidence-inspiring, the 25mm GP4Ks tire grips like it was glued to the ground, corners smartly, etc. And I no longer worry that my 270ish lb self is taking my life into my own hands riding a 19mm wide 20-spoke Racelite wheel as hard and fast as I often do. I recall hitting my max-ever downhill speed of 53mph going down a short, steep descent here in AZ and thinking holy crap, if anything fails on my bike ride now I'm literally gonna die. I think that remote possibility just got a little further away with this new 32h wheel.

Thanks for all the advice!

Bill Kapaun

I'll bet you feel a lot better now.

SethAZ 

I sure do! Can't wait for the rear hub to show up. I'm a little more daunted by that build, but I discovered that a roommate of a shooting buddy of mine is a bike mechanic and has a truing stand, dishing tool, tons of experience, etc. and he invited me to come over to their apartment with the rear wheel if I want to and do all the tensioning there, with adult supervision. I think I'm going to take him up on that.

bigfred 

I will gently suggest that you at least have a remeasure with your TM-1 after final truing. Use the Park TCC spreadsheet and input your numbers. This will provide you with a quantitative measure of your work. You'll be able to see how your work compares to the industry standard for a machine built wheel of +- 20%, the +-10% you might expect from a handbuilt set, or the +-<5% that some of us are trying to achieve. Also, go around the wheel plucking the spokes so you can start to develop an ear for what consistant and inconsistant tension sounds like. It's only by doing this that you can start to develop an opinion of your own on the realative value of tone vs meter for building and truing of your own wheels.

With regards to the "relatively crude scale of the TM-1", you'll find quite a few of us who read them down to quarters of a numeral.

You may be surprised by how little one spoke needs to be tensioned to result in the loss of tension to a neighbooring spoke. You won't know quantitatively how small or large your variance is until you measure. Variation can certainly be helped and eliminated, even by a newb, it just requires trying.

Glad you're enjoying your wheel. Remember, the longevity of a clyde wheel is primarily determined by the degree and uniformity of the spoke tensions.

The friends truing stand will make things a bit quicker and easier, but, doesn't neccessarily improve the outcome in any way. An inverted frame/fork can deliver just as good a result if sufficient patience is used.

Bill Kapaun

I think rears are easier. You basically concentrate on the DS spokes and tension the NDS to get the proper dish. NDS tension ends where it has to be.
I think most of us prefer a minimum of 65-70 kgf on the NDS spokes, so we may go slightly higher on the DS (if necessary) to achieve that.
Just try to keep the spokes on each side even with themselves.
Shooting buddies make good wheelbuilders

onbike 1939

Reading this thread, which is full of good things, does make me wish that the wheel components were that bit cheaper. It's difficult keeping up your skills when the cost of a hand-built wheel is ruling out prospective clients including myself. I find that I can buy a machine-made wheel with the components I want, cheaper than buying the individual components, and that's a real turn-off. I now find myself buying these wheels and re-building them to achieve the standards I want.

Forgive the digression, but does anyone suffer from cramp in the hands when building? This is a real problem for me as I've grown older, and it limits the time I can spend with a spoke key.

FBinNY 

I don't get cramps, but can gt sore fingertips using the wrong key on a tight rear wheel. In your shoes, I'd suspect that the choice of key shape would be equally important. Otherwise, taking a break and flexing the hand at natural places, (ie. between full laps of adding tension) might make the difference for you.

If I had my druthers, I'd give up on spoke wrenches, and use hex head nipples exclusively, turning them with a nut driver at first, then with a T-wrench as they go tighter.

mrrabbit 

In my case, my hands don't sleep at night if I consistently do 4-5 wheels per day. It's the stress relief work that does it. So now even with gloves, I try to have a day in between where I do only 1-2 wheels or do other things like convert hubs - tear other stuff down, prep bulk hubs, or update my spreadsheet, etc.

One thing I have noticed of late is that if I try to do a lot of twisting the nipples using fingers - fingers start to ache pretty bad. So it's either nipple driver or spoke wrench - let the tools do the work.

=8-)

Drew Eckhardt 

You can also stretch the spokes past their elastic limit by bending them about each other at their outer crossing using something softer than steel like a brass drift (my favorite), plastic screw driver handle, or old left crank.

FBinNY 

I've been using the same broken boom handle for almost 40 years.