Shoutout to the shop regular who taught me about spoke tension

This older guy named Jerry came in last Tuesday while I was rebuilding a wheel and just watched for a minute before telling me I was way over-tightening the drive side spokes on a 32-hole rim he used to own. He pulled out a spoke tension meter from his jacket and showed me the readings were off by almost 15 kgf compared to the non-drive side. Has anyone else had a random customer drop serious knowledge on them like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

piper7791d ago

A friend of mine had an old timer at his shop do the exact same thing with a wheel truing stand.

mary_west1d agoProlific Poster

Isn't it wild how those old timers just have that instinct for things? They just feel it, you know, like they can sense when something is off by a hair. I had a guy like that at my local shop once, set up a wheel so it was nearly perfect without even looking at the dial gauge (which is kind of crazy). It's a dying art for sure, and it's sad to see those hands-on skills fade away. Makes you appreciate the real craftsmanship behind it all.

anderson.piper1d ago

Honestly, isn't that the kind of thing you just have to see to believe? I had a similar experience at a bike co-op once, this older guy just spun the wheel, tapped a spoke, and it was dead on. Ngl, it made me feel like I was watching a magician, not a mechanic. Tbh, those skills just hit different, you know?