piperwhite•1mo agoMost Upvoted

Customer told me my spoke tension was uneven and showed me with a Park Tool TM-1

He handed me the tension meter and said 'just check every fourth spoke across the rim', and I found five spokes were 20 percent off from the rest, so now I actually use the tool instead of relying on my feel alone.

3 comments

3 Comments

jennysullivan1mo ago

Five spokes being 20 percent off? That is a lot. That is basically a whole quarter of your wheel being out of whack. It would drive me crazy just feeling that through the bike, let alone riding it. I gotta respect a customer who calls you on something and shows you the actual proof with a tool instead of just complaining.

the_logan1mo agoTop Commenter

One thing nobody's bringing up is that checking every fourth spoke only catches patterns that repeat every four. If the uneven spots were grouped together like a low section from a crash, you could miss half of them with that method. That customer might have saved you from a false sense of security more than he saved you from a bad wheel.

julia_patel1mo ago

@jennysullivan that's a solid point about grouped vs spaced issues, but what nobody's mentioning is the customer might have been testing you with that specific pattern. They knew the exact method to catch a common mistake, which is honestly more impressive than just owning a tool.