Where to find recommended spoke tension?
 

I'm riding a 2010 Fuji Roubaix ACR 2.0 with Shimano R-500 wheels. I really want the Park Tool TM-1, but it's just under $60. I don't have any way to measure my spokes' tension, but what's a good resource for finding out what tension they should have? I've Googled and found some seemingly random PDFs and such, but I'd like to know if there's a better source first.

Also, I know I can tune my spokes by sound, but there's still the matter of knowing the right note.

Thanks!

Yeesh....

...where to start.

1. You're over thinking it. You're dealing with Shimano R-500 wheels - if you start messing with them you will most likely shorten their life even more than they usually have.

2. Don't worry about getting a tensiometer. Pluck the spokes all the way around (realize that the rear should have 2 different tones - Drive Side and Non-Drive side) and look for a common tone. Understand that you will never get them all to be the same....why? because rims aren't round. If you have them all the same the wheel won't be true. Just a serving of reality for you. The craft in all of this is understanding where the tradeoff are.

3. Tension listings? Nice - yeah no. Occasionally you can get recommendations from the rim manufacturer, but on prebuilts - you aren't going to see anything in print. Why? because the manufacturers don't want anyone other than themselves or authorized dealers touching them.

A better question would be, "why do you think you need to worry about them?". Shimano R500's....don't worry about them unless they go un-true. Ride them until the croak. If you take the time to figure all this out then rent yourself out to the local shop - they don't really understand wheel building even though they think they do.... ;)

The question does remain, Rob - how tight to make those spokes? I can get it round with a certain level of tension. I can also get it round with higher tension on the spokes all round, or less tension on the spokes. So how much tension is enough?

I have handmade wheels by you (lots of them, hehe), by Competitive Cyclist (the old wired PT wheel I replaced with yours) and by Planet X. All have different levels of tension. So how is a neophyte wheelbuilder to decide "how much"?

V.

Feel. :thumb:

The only true indication is when you've gone too far - the rim will begin to warp and collapse under the tension. Too low and you run the potential of exceeding tension/unloading the spoke when in use.

I take it there that within these two extremes, there is a range of tension options, each of which results in a wheel with a different feel but is still functional?

Forgive me, wheel gods.

Anyway, my rear wheel does this soft squeaky noise when I ride it. The last time I noticed this noise (I think it was the front wheel), I took it back to Performance Bike, the tech did some work on the spokes, and it seemed to improve it. I can tune the spokes by sound, but I have to have a reference.

how much do you weigh

Thanks for sharing, I learnt something today, at it wasn't from my lecture this morning! :thumb:

Well, actually I learnt that the air spaces around a door are roughly equal to the size of a brick, which leads to energy inefficiency. But that's not related to bikes so it is not important and will be erased from memory by tomorrow. :lol:

I'm around 6'4'', 150 lbs. Still trying to put on some muscle. :D

Yes, and that range of acceptable tensions gets narrower as the rim gets lighter/weaker (needs lower tension) and as the number of spokes decreases (needs higher tension).

To the OP, I'm sure Shimano has the tension range in a shop manual somewhere, but they might not be willing to share it with an amateur and instead tell you to find a shop that services their products. I thought those wheels used a proprietary spoke wrench anyway.

They do - I had to make my own, but a few years back Park put one out that fits them.

It's no secret - they have a tech doc published on the internet that lists the values. It's around 100kgf for the front and 120 for the drive side rear.


Congratulations, you made the common .136 spoke wrench. :thumb:

To the OP, Park still makes it; It's the red spoke wrench.

Obviously these guys are thinking of another wheelset because they've made no sense regarding your WHR500s.

It's true that those wheels often ride like crap (lots of flex) until they are properly tensioned. Once done, they ride and hold up pretty well, especially at your weight.

Incorrect.
http://www.parktool.com/product/spok...-systems-SW-14
Indeed. I personally was thinking of the R550's http://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830728613.pdf

Wow so many long answers that don't answer the the OPs question. If all you want is the recommended tension go to Shimano's web site www.shimano.com and enter the wheel number in their search box. Pull up the info on the wheel and there will be a PDF for the wheel with all technical information including recommended spoke tension. I'm sure there are other methods but it seems that there shouldn't anything wrong with using factory specs. Even if you can't use this as a hard and fast way to make a wheel true and/or round. The pdf I looked at gives a range.

Oops. I was too.

Nope, wrong again. I used the .136 red Park #2 wrench to work on those wheels.

Do you have a cold or something? I don't ever remember not agreeing with you before.:rolleyes:

OPs original question was answered in post 12. Thanks for playing.;)

Try that again. You just changed the quote that was from me to Urbanknight which it wasn't from.
In your post you literally told me that
That is incorrect. I did NOT make a .136 spoke wrench. I made one to work with the larger Shimano proprietary nipple sizing covered by Park's SW-14.

Congrats on being wrong, having it pointed out, and then insisting that you were correct in being wrong. UK and I both admitted we were wrong in thinking that we were talking about an R550 wheel instead of an R500. Honest mistake and we both made it.

.....

Nope. I've adjusted tension before with my Crankbrothers multitool.

I made my own spoke wrench for Shimano wheels too. My wheels were R500s from 2002 or 2003. The ones with the (proprietary sized) nipples in the hub instead of the rim.