Spoke tension has become a growing concern among players. Moreover, among the concerns about the spoke tension, the highest attention is paid to the size and uniformity of the spoke tension.
In terms of the tension of the spokes alone, they are hidden in the wheels, providing durability, precise steering, as well as rapid acceleration and strong braking. The art of wheel assembly is to keep the spoke tension within a reasonable range as far as possible and to perform as well as it should. It is not simply that higher is better. At the same time, we want to keep the differences between the spokes as small as possible.
A spoke tension diagram with 28 spokes without a tire. Black represents the spoke tension on the driving side and red represents the spoke tension on the non-driving side. The difference in tension between each circle of the spider's web at the back is 200N, which translates to about 20kgf (kilograms of force). You can see here that the spokes differ very little from each other.
In fact, after the tire is installed on the wheel set, the spoke tension on the wheel set is affected by tire pressure. The overall spoke tension was reduced, but the spokes were not significantly different from each other.
At this point, however, tires have been added and riders have been added under static conditions. It can be seen that there is an increase in spoke tension in the upper part of the wheel set and a decrease in spoke tension in the lower part of the wheel set. Because spokes in the wheel set will only play a role of pull, and can not play a role of support. As weight is applied to the wheel set, tension in the spokes in the upper part increases.
And that's just the tension of the spokes under static load. If you're riding, the tension changes happen all the time. In the case of one of the spokes, for every kilometer, the tension of the spokes changes 450 more times.
If the tension value of spokes is set too low in the process of wheel assembly, the spokes will become loose in the process of repeated tension loading and unloading, and further increase the burden of other spokes. This also causes the wheels to wobble and pulsate, which not only affects the spokes, but also causes the wheels to wear out prematurely. Conversely, if the tension of the spokes is too high, it is possible that the tension on the spokes will be too large during the impact, such as the landing after the jump, causing the spokes to undergo plastic deformation. This plastic deformation reduces the tension of the spokes and causes the wheel to lose balance.
So, as far as the rotation is concerned, bigger is not always better. In general factory braided wheel sets, different spoke tension will be set according to the purpose of the wheel set and the spokes used. In most cases, they are in the middle or slightly above the tension that the spokes can withstand. Mainly in order to adapt to more user needs. For manual wheel sets, they are more flexible and can set a more accurate spoke tension according to their own usage scenarios, cycling habits and body weight.