-
99% of people don't need their wheels to have exactly the right tension. I've never aimed for a certain tension in wheels, but I use a Park Tools TM-1 to make sure the tensions are even, for doing this it is a good tool. Citation: ive built 20+ wheels for myself and others and never had a spoke break. No need to knock the TM1 to try and justify spending 400+ on a tension meter
Turkish-
99% of people don't need their wheels to have exactly the right tension
True, although a more elegant formulation would be that for most people on most builds, the range of tension between too low and too high is quite wide. The range narrows as the load rises and the spoke count/cross section reduces, until you get to the Dymaxion design for a particular load case in which only one precise value of build tension will result in the spokes never going to either zero tension or terminal overload.
-
I did not say people should spend lots on a tension meter but having used a tm1 it is no better than tone. That's all I am trying to say.
gbj_tester
cycleclinic
a decent tension meter like sapim or DT swiss. The sapim guage is £560 and the DT Swiss guage is £400. These guages come with there own spoke calibration chart and while a sapim race and DT comp are close if you use both gauges on the same spokes and refer to each other tension chart you get different tensions (less than 100N difference) not enough to cause a major problem. not sure if the sapim guage chart or the DT Swiss chart is wrong as I can create my own with my own load cell and get something a bit different not by much though. The DT Gauge does not CX-ray or the pillar 1422 spokes on the NDS rear. I dont know if it shows a reading for the aerolite nds rear maybe not which makes it a bit pointless as your back to tone.
The park TM-1 is no better than tone useful if your deaf I suppose but it is not marked as a aid to deaf wheel builders. parks calibration chart does not match any other.