Tried a $15 spoke tension meter from eBay, got weird results on an old touring bike

I picked up one of those cheap spoke tension meters off eBay last month, just to see if it would work for a quick wheel truing job on a 1980s Schwinn I'm fixing up for a neighbor. The gauge read all over the place, like 20% difference between spokes that felt the same by hand. I checked it against my buddy's Park Tool meter and it was off by about 30 units on average. Lesson learned: you get what you pay for, and I'm back to using the old squeeze-and-listen method for now. Has anyone else tried those cheap meters and had them be way off?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliverbailey16d ago

...and my buddy Mike had the exact same thing happen with one of those cheap meters. He bought one off Amazon, tried to true up his old Koga Miyata, and the readings were so random he actually snapped a spoke just tightening a "low" one. He compared it to my Snap-On gauge later and the difference was wild, like 40 units off on some spokes. Now he just uses the pluck test like a normal person, says it's way more reliable for an old steel rim.

terry_walker15d ago

Yeah and honestly the squeeze test works fine if you have any kind of ear for it at all.