I agree the Park Tools tension meter isn't that great, what you're describing can happen. I saw it recently when mounting super tight TCS beaded WTB tires to a pair of Stan's Crest wheels (yes, they aren't supposed to be compatible). It dropped the tension noticeably and the rim went a couple mm to the side as well. They had been tensioned not terribly long before and hadn't budged much out of true since. I just re-did them with the tire on (and inflated) and went from there. No problems in the 8 or so months they have been on. I'm really not sure if taking the tire off would create over-tensioned spokes and create a crack in the rim bed (like what Chris was referring to). I had never thought about that until now! I can't say I have experienced it on a road rim, but I haven't felt/seen anything weird enough to ever check for a tension drop.

I don't consider myself a good wheelbuilder and clearly don't own a wheel company, but abhor paying a shop (and waiting) for such mindless work and learned a bit about wheel building and maintenance. I would guess there wasn't much stress relief done during/after the initial build. Can you take us through what you did for that?

The DS and NDS shouldn't have the same tension on most builds. An offset rim can help even the tension slightly or a 16:8 build (16 spokes on the DS and 8 spokes on the NDS) gets the tensions pretty even.

I may have missed it above, but Roger Musson's book is great. There's not much you need to know that isn't in it.

You don't need a spoke tension meter.

Tubeless ready rims can loose quite a bit of tension when a tire is inflated on them, if it's a tubeless tire even more !

Some great article on the subject here :
http://www.wheelfanatyk.com/blog/kgf-v-psi-part-1/
http://www.wheelfanatyk.com/blog/kgf-v-psi-part-2/
http://www.wheelfanatyk.com/blog/kgf-vs-psi-part-3/


Or there
http://www.novemberbicycles.com/blog/2017/2/1/daves-road-tubeless-doubts.html


Tubeless ready rims are in general ok if their diameters are designed to fit a tire tight enough, but not too tight ! A standard tire will have beads that expand a little thus you shouldn't loose too much tension when tire is inflated. A tubeless tire will have stronger beads that does not expand much so if you are on a super tight rim with a tubeless tire on a lower side of the tolerances you will loose lot of tension since the rim diameter will get smaller ! Problem that come with it is that since rear wheel are asymetrical it will also make the dish wrong with tire inflated !


My Flo 45 and 60 carbon clincher are good examples of rims that are not too tight which I like. I've had other tubeless ready rims that were way too tight and lost lot of tension even with a standard clincher + tube !!! If I'm not going to use tubeless I still like a non tubeless ready shaped rim like a Zipp or a Corima... I know it does not sound as high tech but in the end if you are not going to use tubeless tyres you are better off with a more rounded shape and beads less tight on the rims...

Thanks Jim. Can you expand on this?

Simple, ya gets to know by feel and sound when there is enough.

Tension meters can be wrong, especially with bladed spokes.

You should be able to build a wheel by feel and sound.

My wheelbuilder has built more than 30,000 wheels and has never used a tension meter.

Funny you say that, earlier in the thread I reported having laced and tensioned the wheel to what I felt was correct tension and then checking with the meter and seeing I was over tension (on the chart) by roughly 3 points (40Kgf). I then lowered it to spec using the meter.

I should have left the wheel where it was.

I have a wheelbuilder in Taiwan that loves to use really high tension. Probably 20% higher than my guy here in the bay area.

Great resources and probably a better explanation than I attempted.