A customer told me my spoke tension was 'too musical' and made me rethink everything

Guy comes in with a fixie last month, I'm tensioning his rear wheel and he stops me. Says 'sounds like a harp, not a wheel.' I thought that was insane at first. But he showed me his other bike where the spokes barely hummed. I backed off the tension about 15% on a couple spokes and the wheel actually stayed truer after a few rides. Always figured tighter meant better. Anyone else had a customer call you out on something you thought was standard?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant1554d ago

Oh man, that reminds me of this old timer I met at a swap meet who could tell if a crank bearing was bad just by flicking it with his fingernail. I thought he was full of it until he did it on my bike and called out the exact spot where it was grinding. Never seen anyone use hearing like that before or since. It's wild what some people pick up on that seems totally crazy at first.

ramirez.vera4d ago

So did you start checking your own tension by ear after that, or was it just a one-off thing that worked?

willowr964d ago

Had a buddy who tried this after his guitar went out of tune halfway through an open mic. He got so obsessed with it he started tuning everything by ear including his car radio and probably drove his girlfriend crazy. Worked great for him at gigs though, never saw him reach for a tuner again.