Denman
rbent member
Posts: 350
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Tension is the key to long spoke life. Bolts, spokes, doesn't matter, when tension is applied they stretch, and how much they stretch affects the service life. Pre-tension them to roughly 70% of their yield point where they permanently deform and the stretch is almost non-existent. Wheel building is an art, as is maintaining them. A well built wheel tends to last a long time between services. A poorly built wheel in effect almost needs to be rebuilt after some time on the road. One thing I've noticed is some poorly built wheels using the same rims/hubs/spokes/nipples as a well built wheel tend to have bends in the spoke near the nipple. Well built wheels appear to have the nipples sort of angled. Which makes me wonder if the nipple shoulders in the rim may be counterbored at a bit of an angle. If they are, the counterbores would be at different angles so its possible that when first lacing up a wheel the builder chose the wrong hole to start with. Anyone have an answer to that? The rims in question are Velocity Aeroheats.
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