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Once upon a time I was the de-facto bicycle mechanic for my local bicycle club. I built (well, put togeter) a lot of bicycle wheels. And yes I would pluck the s
by Tor3 8y ago
Once upon a time I was the de-facto bicycle mechanic for my local bicycle club. I built (well, put togeter) a lot of bicycle wheels. And yes I would pluck the spokes and listen when I was tensioning up the wheels. And they came out pretty good.
- jacquesm 8y agoThat's exactly how I do it. I rebuilt a tandem this year and the wheels had to be re-spoked, tuning the spokes is a great way to get equal tension all around. It is quite amazing how strong a well spoked wheel is, equally, how fast a wheel will go to pieces if the spokes are not tensioned properly. For tandem bikes a regular steel wheel is the best, not stainless (it is too soft). There are expensive spoke tension meters but your ear works just as good if you check the tension on a known good wheel with the same spoke thickness and length and use that as a reference. It's a fun job and this too will take you some time the first time around.