DT Swiss Aerolite spoke tension with Park tools Meter

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abrown3mtg
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by abrown3mtg

What is the # I should look for with the park tension meter for my wheelset. I have a 32 hole 2x build velocity aerohead, aerolites, and chris kings...... Not sure what ND side, drive side, and front tensions should be at..... (just the # on the tension meter, 7,9,10,15, etc). Thanks in advance.

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legs 11
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by legs 11

Depends on your rider weight really but around 100 kgf would be good for the average rider.
For an Aerolite that would be 13 on the Park scale.
For my weight (around 80 kgf) I'd go with 12 on the front and 13 on the DSR, the NDSR will be about 50-60% of the DS but it's not really relevant anyway as you just get whatever is reflected from the DS anyway depending on the hub dimensions.
Cheers, Rob.
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abrown3mtg
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by abrown3mtg

legs 11 wrote:Depends on your rider weight really but around 100 kgf would be good for the average rider.
For an Aerolite that would be 13 on the Park scale.
For my weight (around 80 kgf) I'd go with 12 on the front and 13 on the DSR, the NDSR will be about 50-60% of the DS but it's not really relevant anyway as you just get whatever is reflected from the DS anyway depending on the hub dimensions.
Cheers, Rob.


I'm 140-145 lbs..... (65.77 kg)... should have stated that before. :wink:

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legs 11
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by legs 11

You may want to go a little less then, unless you like your wheels very stiff?
Knock a number off that scale down to 11 for the front and 12 for the DSR.
Cheers, Rob. :)
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abrown3mtg
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by abrown3mtg

Awesome! Thank you so much! Time to go tighten these up! (God I hate truing/tensioning wheels)

Tristan
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by Tristan

13 on the Park tool (if it's correctly calibrated) will be 1000Kgf

I wouldn't go any lower than that or your NDS spokes will not have sufficient tension to stay tight, especially with the King hub which has quite wide flange spacing.
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occor
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by occor

Tristan wrote:13 on the Park tool (if it's correctly calibrated) will be 1000Kgf


I have a Park TM-1 meter conversion table here in front of me and it shows 13* = 100Kgf (*2.1/2.3x.9mm bladed steel)

Tristan wrote:I wouldn't go any lower than that or your NDS spokes will not have sufficient tension to stay tight, especially with the King hub which has quite wide flange spacing.


When I recently built myself some 32h, 3x, Nemesis and Record wheels the DS spokes had to be tensioned to 130Kgf in order to correctly dish the wheel and achieve 60Kgf on the NDS spokes.

gilesharrison
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by gilesharrison

If you want it, you can download a copy of the Park tension meter figures from their website.

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thisisatest
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by thisisatest

100kg is near 1000N...
higher spoke tensions does not equal a stiffer wheel. to a point, it equals greater resistance to detensioning due to spokes going slack when hitting a bump. with aerolites (and similarly cx-rays), 130kg is an often-quoted number to aim for. it's a non-eyeletted, relatively light rim, so a little lower than that may be better, someone that builds that exact rim a lot can chime in on that aspect.
the figure is for the right rear. left rear is whatever it needs to be. front, i build to the same as the right rear, i just err a little lower.

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