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

piper7793mo ago

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

mary_west3mo ago

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.piper3mo 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?