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Watching a shop owner in Bend true a wheel by feel alone made me rethink all my gauges
I was at a small co-op in Bend, Oregon about 8 years back, and the owner was building up a rear wheel for a touring guy headed down the coast. I had my tension meter and dish tool all set up like usual, and he just grabbed the spokes with his fingers and gave them a squeeze, one by one, humming to himself. He told me he'd been at it since 1979 and could feel when a wheel was out by less than half a millimeter. I stood there kind of annoyed at first, but then he spun it up and it ran dead straight, no hop at all. I still use my tools every day because nobody pays me to trust my hands, but that afternoon stuck with me more than any class I ever took. It made me wonder how many of us lean on the gear because we never had somebody show us the old way. Any of you ever worked next to a lifer who could do it all by feel, and did it change how you build wheels?
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andrew7788d ago
So the guy had a good touch, does that mean the tools are wrong? Half a millimeter by feel sounds nice but nobody can prove it. You said it yourself, you still use your gear every day. That's not a knock on the old guy, it's just that repeatable results beat a good day and steady hands. Plenty of lifers can feel a wheel, sure, but how many of them can teach it or do it the same way when they're tired or sick? I'll keep my tension meter.
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