spoke tension
The previous post with the recommended spoke tensions, I believe, is right on. You've probably read a lot online about wheel truing/building etc., but as important as having the approximate proper spoke tension, is having even spoke tension. If one spoke measures "40" on your tool, the next "50", it would be desirable to loosen one and tighten the other. Unfortuanetly, however, the park tool only gives you an idea of spoke tension, where as a tensiometer with an analog or dial indicator would give you an exact tension, which is always preferrable.
Wheelsmith was bought by Sun components/Sun-Ringle, it looks like the Wheelsmith site has been taken down, atleast the link to Wheelsmith from the Sun site has been deactivated.
Now.
What does the tension read right now?
You are aware that tension differs between the drive side and non-drive side correct?
You know to place the tensiometer in approximately the same place on every spoke, preferrable in the middle between the beginning of the spoke butt and where it crosses?
Your 29er wheels use disc brakes now?
You know how to calibrate your park tensiometer?
All of the above affect the spoke tension reading and/or the desired spoke tension.
Your spokes are pretty thin wire, I'm guessing that the reading on your tool to indicate your desired spoke tension is somewhere between 45-55. I don't know, you'll definitely want to reference your conversion chart. That being said, check all the spokes working primarily on the drive side for the rear wheel, and the disk side (if you have disc brakes) for the front wheel. Find the highest spoke tension reading and the lowest. You'll probably want to tighten the spokes up to match the highest tension, unless that # is obviously an outlier compared to the others. After you get pretty consistent readings on the drive side, true the wheel by tightening the non-drive side, while making sure the dish of the wheel is proper. The same process can be applied to the front wheel, but you would work off the disc side.
After having said all this, however, if your wheel is more than a few months old, or if you don't have all of the proper tools, or if you don't really know what your doing...working with thin guage spokes and alloy nipples can get tricky, especially if they are more than 5-6 months old. The nipples start to bind to the spoke, resulting in static friction that is difficult to overcome without rounding the nipples with your tool. Also, it is best to work in terms of small changes. Make small adjustments, small corrections. If one spoke is loose, only tighten it a little compared to what you think it may need. By the time you check the whole wheel, you may have tightened everything else sufficiently to bring that loose spoke up to an acceptable tension.
Also, if, before touching your spoke with a wrench, you check the tension with your tensiometer and find the tension to be generally acceptable, you may not want to touch anything.
Good luck
C Foster
