Quantcast

Park TM-1 spoke tension gauge

Having just purchased this tool, I have been measuring spoke tension on the stock Stan’s ZTR Flow EX wheel set on my 2015 Intense Tracer,

Spokes seem to be 1.7 mm, and I'm guessing aluminum since they're non-magnetic.

Park gives tension ranges for a variety of spokes, but not 1.75 mm aluminum.

How would I find the applicable tension range?
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,225
20,003
Sleazattle
Having just purchased this tool, I have been measuring spoke tension on the stock Stan’s ZTR Flow EX wheel set on my 2015 Intense Tracer,

Spokes seem to be 1.7 mm, and I'm guessing aluminum since they're non-magnetic.

Park gives tension ranges for a variety of spokes, but not 1.75 mm aluminum.

How would I find the applicable tension range?

They are non magnetic alloy of stainless not aluminum. There are aluminum spokes out there but they are going to be much larger than 1.7mm and very expensive.

This will give you what you need:

 
They are non magnetic alloy of stainless not aluminum.

This will give you what you need:

Thanks, I had used the app, using the 1.7 mm steel settings, was just confused regarding the materials. I like the gauge.
 

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,259
8,765
Crawlorado
Some people will complain that it is not accurate especially if it isn't regularly calibrated, it is more than accurate enough.
I've built my own wheels for the past 15 years and never once used a tension gage. So long as it ran true and the spokes felt right enough when plucked, it was good to go. Never had any issues warping or destroying wheels.

Now I have the Park meter and tension my spokes appropriately. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe it doesn't, I cannot say.
 

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,225
20,003
Sleazattle
I've built my own wheels for the past 15 years and never once used a tension gage. So long as it ran true and the spokes felt right enough when plucked, it was good to go. Never had any issues warping or destroying wheels.

Now I have the Park meter and tension my spokes appropriately. Maybe it makes a difference, maybe it doesn't, I cannot say.
Certainly not necessary. I find it helpful when just starting to true the wheel primarily focusing on concentricity before going to higher tension when the plucking the spoke really doesn't work . So for me it helps speed things up. I have built fair number of wheels but always with years between sets so I am far from being efficient.
 

4xBoy

Turbo Monkey
Jun 20, 2006
7,014
2,847
Minneapolis
If you build with the same spokes again and again, I don't think it is needed, but when you build with carbon rims and bladed spokes. I find you need one, it is really hard to get the tension as high as what rims are required by feel (at least for me) the park gauge might not be super accurate, but if you have another wheel to compare against, it is consistent, which is what you are trying to achieve.
 
When I checked both wheels initially, tension on the rear wheel was all over the place. I had sort of noticed that just checking with my fingers. The wheel also was not centered. I'm going to see where I get to fiddling by myself, then have a pro do the final tweaking. If I wanted to get serious about this, I'd need to purchase a truing stand.