It's pretty easy, as everyone says. But sure, you could mess it up. Then you could fix it, and you'd have a more visceral understanding of the process. I'd start with on-the-bike truing, since you might find you hate the whole process. I'd wait on buying a truing stand and tensiometer until you've built a wheel and want build a second one, only faster. That's what I did, and my "built on the bike" wheels are no worse than the ones built with the proper tools.
1. Spoke nipples work like jar caps. Envisioning that the spoke is a jar and the nipple is the cap is pretty much the only way I can keep it straight which way to turn the wrench. 2. A tight-fitting wrench is pretty key, especially on an old wheel that might have corroded spokes. I like the Spokey wrench, but the Park ones are fine. 3. Keep the nipple faces square with the rim, and only turn 1/4 turn at a time. That lets you put the wrench on by feel, and keeps you from getting obsessed with micro-turns. 4. Over-turn a little on each adjustment, and then bring the nipple back square with the rim. That minimizes the 'pinging' and re-truing after stress relieving or riding. Good luck! Philip Santa Rosa, CA On Saturday, October 6, 2018 at 8:28:00 AM UTC-7, Lum Gim Fong wrote: > > Was wondering if this is easy to do for a first timer, or could I mess up > the spoke tension and cause big probs. > > Of course, safety is my first concern. I don't want to mess up the wheel > and cause a safety issue. > > But it is a skill I would like to have so I don't have to run to the LBS > over something that may be simple to do myself. > > Books make it seem simple. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
