Help on handbuilt wheelset
 

Hey all,

I just build a new wheelset last week and it was technically my first complete build on a full set. I have many friends who are wheel builders, I am a mechanic in all other aspects, and have been for a few years now, and I have this great thing we call the internet, so I'm sure I did it right. There is just a small creaking noise every couple rotations, that kind of sounds like a single spoke settling, but the wheels havent lost tension, and havent come out of true, so what is it I'm hearing?

That's the sound of spokes settling. If you had stress-relieved your wheels several times during the build process, you most likely wouldn't be hearing it. Worst case scenario is that your wheels will need to be slightly trued in a few weeks.

I only stress relieved once, and im not sure i did that part 100% correctly. Should i loosen them up, and re-tension them?

No need to do that. Just ride them and true them up when (if) they need it.

Thanks man, I appreciate the help.

What's you're preferred way of stress relieving Scrod? I've heard a few methods mentioned over the years (and monkeyed with a couple myself), sorta makes me wonder if it's only the stress relief that matters, not the method.

As I bring a wheel up to tension I usually stop several times and squeeze parallel sets of spokes together on both sides, making my way around the wheel. Once up to tension I take the wheel from the stand, place it on the table (with the axle perpendicular to the table) and push down on the rim on opposite sides of the wheel.

Is spoke squeezing good enough? I probably do it in a way that's too slow, but I start out with my feelers in my stand fairly wide and move them in a little at the time. Before I move them in, I squeeze the paired spokes, check to see if anything has changed, and then move the feelers in a little closer. I'm in the middle of building my second wheelset this way, but for various reasons the first wheelset never got used, so I don't know if this is good enough. I suppose I'll find out when I ride them and either true now or true later.

Edit: looks like I took too long to write my question and Scrod answered it before I even asked it.

Squeezing works but when you're near/at finished tension pushing down on the rim, as Scrod described, works the best, otherwise you will find out after riding.

/repeatafterscrod

Cool, that's close enough to what I do now, though it never occurred to me to combine the two. Thanks.