I took my bike into the LBS to have the shifter cables replaced, and they “did me a favor” by truing my wheels. Well, they don’t know how to true bladed spokes, and now my bladed spokes are all twisted.
I don’t want to take it back to them b/c they obviously don’t know what they’re doing.
Is it easy to untwist them without messing with the spoke tension? Or is this a job for professionals? I have spoke wrenches, but have never messed with bladed spokes.
There is a special tool for holding spokes in place so they don’t get wound up like yours. Some folks can make do with an adjustable wrench and some cloth as illustrated here:
http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_truing.shtml
but some wheel/spoke manufacturers would prefer that you use the correct tool.
My thought is that they may have ruined the structural integrity of your spokes by twisting them and essentially elongating them. Your wheel may be straight now, but I bet you have many broken spokes in your near future.
Yea buddy, bladed spokes the wrong way must be pretty aero. I can’t believe they did that. I would have someone who at least pretends to under the concept of an expensive race wheel do the job.
God, I hope not. I called a local store that I trust and they said it would cost around $20 to undo the damage.
I would demand a refund from your lbs for trying to “kill you.”.
They probably didn’t damage them by twisting them but it is obvious that they didn’t know what they were doing. Every spoke twists but a good wheel builder will untwist them. If they are not untwisted by the builder, they will untwist on their own and then the wheel will probably be out of true.
You can untwist them yourself with a spoke wrench by turning the nipple. Since the spoke will move with the nipple, the spoke tension will probably not change.
jaretj
You can untwist them, but then of course the wheels will be at least as out of true as they were to begin with. They probably aren’t ruined, but unless you know what you are doing you should probably just take them to another shop, and/or try to get the first shop to kick in some dough for the re-work. There is a “special tool” that looks like a hockey puck with a couple of slots in it. The first shop should have used one. It’s not hard to re-true them, but I wouldn’t recommend as a first time truing project.
"God, I hope not. I called a local store that I trust and they said it would cost around $20 to undo the damage. "
Don’t worry about a little twistage… most of us are riding on spokes that are fairly wound up. I would be concerned if there is much more of a 3/4 twist in any given spoke. I wouldn’t ride it like that (riding it would actually untwist the spoke), but it still wouldn’t ruin the wheel. Just get it corrected before you ride.
As an alternative to the anti-twist tool, any joe schmo who know how to true a wheel can simply turn the nipple more than necessary, then back it off a half turn to take the twist out. If you do it right, you won’t have to stress your wheels during or after truing them. The anti-twist thingy’s are great and are speedy once you learn how to use them. My opinion is that everyone should own one and every wheel should be built with one. That ranks up there with people who expect everyone to use a torque wrench on every bolt all the time, but it’s the way it should be done.
I use a torque wrench every single time. My wrist is a highly calibrated torque wrench. The only problem is it’s calibrated to “oops… too much”.