I have become quite handy around a bike over the last 7+ years but one thing I have never ventured into is wheel building and spoke maintenance. I recently had a wheels become not trued and a one set of my PCW has a spoke ‘pinging’ type noise under medium load very consistently which has me wondering…. How often do you check spoke tension? How do you finding what the right tension is? Any tips on how to get started or best to let the LBS take care of.
The easiest way to check spoke tension is by ear: all the spokes in a given section (eg disc side, front) should be roughly the same tension and thus the same pitch. A 25% change in tension is roughly a full tone, easily heard: think do - re from the do - re - mi song.
If you get to mi there is a problem.
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One of the most practical textbooks on wheelbuilding is the one from Roger Musson. It is not that expensive, give it a go if you are really interested:
Some people destroy wheels, loosening and breaking spokes regularly. Some people will never need a wheel true despite riding huge kms. If you’ve been riding for seven years and this is your first issue, I’m guessing you’re closer to the second type of rider.
You can definitely learn to do it yourself, but my experience is that it takes regular practice to get proficient at it. And if you’re not a wheel destroyer, it’s hard to get that practice if you’re not working on other people’s wheels.
My experience is that most people can’t tune by pitch unless they have some musical experience. It’s definitely easier to check by pitch in wheels where the spokes don’t touch at a crossing point. But most people can feel the difference between a tight and loose spoke by squeezing two spokes together, even if the spokes touch at the cross.
If you decide to have a go, remember to stop if you feel like the wheel is getting worse as you can do damage. And don’t feel bad if you end up taking it to a shop and the experienced mechanic fixes it in 1/10th the time it took you to mess it up!
I give them a flick in the same position (centre) to gauge pitch.