Respoking a wheel.

I'm just about done with respoking a wheel. Got it running pretty true about 20 thousandths. The rim's got a kink in it at the weld, always been like that. The folks at Buchanan Spoke talk about torquing the spokes to 80 inch pounds. The problem is that they want $88 for the special torque wrench. A regular torque wrench won't do the job. Any body got a work around?

TIA

Bill

Could you weld a socket to the spoke wrench?


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I have never laced up a motorcycle wheel, but have built a few bicycle wheels. On those you couldn't get all the spokes to the same tension and have the rim run true. The closer the rim is to true in its free state, the better. What I do is lace the spokes and start tightening, then get the dish close first. Next get the rim as true as possible. Then I go around all of the spokes thumping them and listening to the tone. You can find a loose one quickly this way as it will have a very low, flat tone in contrast to the tight spokes.

Two things about this may not work for motorcycle spokes. Obviously the MC spokes are much heavier and won't ring like the long and thin spokes of a bicycle wheel. Also I suspect that there is probably a minimum tension necessary due to the higher forces of a MC spoked wheel.

Oh yeah, on the bike wheels you will often hear a lot of popping from the spokes on the first ride as the wheel gets settled in to the load. You often have to correct the truing job after the first ride.

Personally, I would probably just buy the $88 wrench so I didn't have to worry weather my wheel was properly tightened when I was getting up to highway speed. I have broken spokes on a bicycle wheel before. One spoke caused the wheel to be out of true by 1/2" and it beget the next spoke breaking. That made the wheel out by 1 1/2". Not something I want happening at 70mph.

I forgot to say that 0.020" should be fine.

Got a picture of the spoke wrench? You might be able to drill a hole in the end of the handle and use one of those fishing scales to pull the wrench. Measure the distance from the center of your drilled hole to the center of the end which fits over the spoke. 6" center to center X 13 1/3 lbs pull = 80 in lbs.

Make sure you pull at a 90 degree angle to the wrench for accuracy.

When i was lacing my first set of wheels i was paranoid about doing them right so i took them to the Wheel Master and he said he never uses a torque wrench, he just does it by tapping the spokes. they should have a clear ring not a dull one. they all will have different torque values because that's how you true the rim. it was actually pretty intuitive once he showed me.

Tap the spoke with a wrench. If it rings it's good, if it thumps it's loose. On spokes that sound loose, make sure they aren't touching a crossing spoke. You can push on the other spoke then tap it.

Thanks Guys. All good information. One thing I read on the Buchanan site was that loose spoke flex and it's the flexing that causes them to break. They insist on 80 inch pounds. I think I'm gonna take Testarossa's suggestion and use a force meter (I have one) with a hole a given distance from the spoke nipple. Once I get the feel for 80 inch pounds, I'll go to just turning them that tight.

Thanks Again.

Bill

In a perfect world with a perfectly round rim the 80in lb would work. Every wheel I've built, whether new or used stuff there's always a varying tension to get the wheel as true as possible. Not to mention, sometimes you get a "skip" tightening some spokes. They don't tighten smoothly like a bolt does. Greasing the threads and where the nipple sits into the rim helps with that.