Earle,
I don't know that any recent post was a direct attack on you, but clearly you think one was. I don't want to take sides, and I know I'm risking t hrowing fuel on your fire, but I have a question: How do you know your wh eels are so special? Do you personally ride your own wheels and those of other experienced builders and notice a difference? Is that differenc e in the feel of the wheels as you ride, or is it a difference in durabilit y? Have you ever tried doing a blind comparison? Do you rely on fedba ck from other riders who you build wheels for? Are these professional riders? Have these riders ridden lots of wheels buit by other experience d builders, or are they comparing your wheels to stuff built by machine, or some kid at BBC building his 20th wheelset? It seems to me that it would be very hard to show that there is a significant difference betwee n a wheelset built by you and any wheelset built with carfeully chosen part s by a guy who simply knows how to build wheels, such as a guy like me who has bu ilt only several hundred sets.
My earliest wheel builds were pretty sloppy, and it took me forever to dial them in and even then I doubt the tenison was particularly even or at the correct level and they weren't perfectly true. My more recent wheelsets are more precise, with good even tension and excellent final shape. The practical difference was that the earlier ones might have needed to be tru ed a bit more often, but even that comparison could reflect the use of diff erent parts. So, in my experience, there was little practical difference between my early so-so builds and my later very good, perhaps excellent bu ilds. I'm left thinking that there is a point of diminishing returns, an d I'm quite skeptical about the supposed benfits of anyone's superlative wh eelbuilds.
Personally, exclusively using DT spokes, Wheelsmith spoke prep, and a well- chosen rim has done more to improve my satisifaction with my end product th an getting mired in the details of aboslute of relative tension measurement . But that's just me, and I'd like to know the objective basis for yo ur confidence in your builds.
Tom Dalton
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA