How often do you true your wheels?

[carbonazza]

Yesterday while putting oil on the chain, I noticed the rear wheel was not perfectly true anymore.
Over an area of 6 spokes and max 4mm out, and only minor scratches on the rim.
The front wheel is still perfect.

The last rides were rough and fast.

I contacted light-bicycle.com who built them, for advice.
And they told me that after a few rides, you need to re-true the wheelset.
While I knew I would have to learn this, I didn't expect to have to do this so often.

How often do you true your wheels?

[MTB2223]

Didn't they mean "after the first few rides" ?

On my old bike, I didn't true the wheels in 2 yrs And I used the bike a lot.

[carbonazza]

Me too. I bought a second hand bike, with its wheels on.
And after a year full of rides, I never thought it was necessary to do it.
It looks it's not the same now

[Carbon_Dude]

It's not uncommon for new wheels to need truing after the first few rides.  I have a friend at the LBS who does it while I wait and only charges a few dollars.  He also applies thread locker to the nipples to help keep the spokes and nipples from loosening while riding.  I have been told by a couple of wheel builders that the usual process after building a wheel is to ride the wheels a few times, bring them back, true them up  and apply thread locker.

[carbonazza]

Thanks Carbon_Dude, I didn't know that.

I will try to find an LBS who does it.
And drop for now, to learn truing them myself.

[snipe]

when you read the wheel building threads a common discussion/argument is what to put on the spokes when you build your wheels.  I built my LB 35mm 650b wheels myself and not being a pro it was a learning experience.   Some guys recommend spoke prep, loctite, grease, boiled linseed oil, anti seize or nothing.  Recommended spoke tension is more of a range than a given.   I built mine with DT Swiss revolutions which are so thin in the middle that windup is a bit of a concern and I used aluminum nipples front and brass rear.  I opted to grease my spoke ends since if I needed to retension later on it would be easier with the revolutions and aluminum nipples.  Then I tensioned to about 90-100 kgf on the drive side and front disc side,  which is probably not enough.  This equated to around 17/18 on my Park meter.   I found that after a couple rides I had to retension a quarter turn and I may have to do that again.  So maybe the combo of grease and lower tension is an issue but I just keep an eye on them.   With a thicker spoke, brass mipples and spoke prep then maybe the wheel will stay tensioned forever.   

In a perfect world and in the hands of very experienced builder you may get wheels that never need a true.   I don't mind throwing them up on the stand and giving them a quick true.   Routinely I will quickly pluck the spokes and listen to the pitch, like plucking a guitar string.  A spoke that has lost some tension will have a lower note.  Spokes on the drive side will of course have a higher pitch.  A local bike builder says he always builds his wheels to spoke pitch.  There is even an app for your phone that will tell you the tension by the pitch.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spoke-tension-gauge/id518870820?mt=8    I don't have that good an ear so I will stick to my tension meter.

I replaced some spokes and a hub for a friend of mine.  The wheel had been built by a local lbs.   Before I took it apart I measured the tension.  29 on my Park meter.   1/3 of the nipples and been rounded and distorted trying to get it that tight.   I think that was maybe over the top.   

[carbonazza]

I finally bought a spoke wrench.
Put some zip ties on the frame, and trued the wheel mounted on the bike with the tire on.

The first spoke was a bit rock and roll(for a moment, the spoke blade became a spiral).
I then gripped the spokes with a plier to keep them straight, while screwing the nipples.

One thing that helps is snipe's pitch trick.
You can quickly spot the spoke that has a trouble, just by the sound it makes compared to the others of the same side.

In about 20 minutes, the wheel was true again.