Do you consider tension or trueness more important when you build wheels? I usually start with getting the dish right, then tighten up to even tension for each side, then true it, then check tension again to be sure it's still all pretty close. However, there are some people who think that even tension is more important than being perfectly true. My method is kind of in the middle.
Pic is of my first carbon wheel build (I've built a few dozen alloy wheels before) and the tools for tensioning and truing I used.
by MTB_SF
3 Comments
I wouldn’t want to ride a crooked wheel not matter how perfect the tension is.
The best advice I’ve ever been giving about wheel building is that tension, lateral true, radial true, and dish is all one task. It is one step of wheel building, it it must all happen at the same time, little by little.
Turn some spokes, check the dish, true, and tension, make corrections. Turn some spokes, check the dish, true, and tension, make corrections.
It is a fluid process that needs to happen all at once. If you try to true a wheel without regularly checking your tension, you’ll just be chasing tight spokes around the wheel while it never get true. If you try and tension a wheel without checking true, you’ll just be chasing hops around the wheel and the tension will never be even.
Everything needs to happen in tandem.
Should you tension or true? Yes. Both.
I want the wheel to be true.
I would assume that, on a new wheel, this would result in equal tension on all spokes of one side.
But definitely true first.