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Tool Spoke Tension Meter Park Tool Tm-1

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Tool Spoke Tension Meter Park Tool Tm-1

(29 customer reviews)

SKU:

61993

Availability: Out of stock

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Product Details

Product Length:	8.5 inches
Product Width:	5.75 inches
Product Height:	2.0 inches
Product Weight:	0.65 pounds
Package Length:	9.5 inches
Package Width:	5.9 inches
Package Height:	1.9 inches
Package Weight:	0.7 pounds
Average Customer Rating:	based on 29 reviews

Features

Spoke Tension Meter
Accurately and reliably measures the tension of each of the spokes in a wheel
Easy to use

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review: 4.5

( 29 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 found the following review helpful:

No More Guessing and Hopefully No More Broken Spokes May 07, 2009 By D. J. Mccartney "Joe McCartney"
The TM-1 Spoke Tension Meter works very well. I commute by bike every day to work, and among my three road bikes that I rotate through (set up differently for weather and load), was popping spokes to the tune of about 1 or 2 a month, mostly due to what I perceive to be overtorque on some of the spokes. Now I have torqued my spokes at the lower end of the recommended range and have yet to pop a spoke, and it is reassuring to know that they all are torqued to the same value. It does take a little bit of give and take to get the wheel trued, but with just a little bit of effort you can adjust the tension to the correct range, then make minor adjustments of individual spokes to get the wheel to spin true. You end up with a much more consistent torque range throughout the entire wheel, which eliminates overstress (hot spots) on overtorqued spokes.

47 of 59 found the following review helpful:

Use with Caution Oct 24, 2008 By New England Yankee
I have to say that when I was being trained in wheel work, tension gauges were frowned upon. Tension is important, but the problem is that it is only one variable among many, and concern was always that mechanics would try to apply it in simplistic fashion. The problem is this - if you know wheels, you don't really need a tension gauge. If you don't, using one isn't going to help out much, and can actually hurt you, especially in wheel repair. Gauges are most useful in building new wheels with pristine components, and when building to a production standard. That's not a very good description of home wheel work and not even for shop work.

The gauge itself is decent. Instead of buying it, however, my advice is to take a wheel building and repair workshop at a good local shop instead.

12 of 14 found the following review helpful:

The best tool you'll never really "need..." Jan 29, 2011 By Nathaniel Allen
I guess I'm what you call a "book learned / internet learned" home wheel builder (as opposed to having been mentored in a shop environment), and on my first half-dozen builds over many years, I got along just fine without a tension gauge. The most important factors in building a reliable wheel have proved to be sufficient, even tension. (It took me only one attempt to figure out how horribly unreliable an undertensioned wheel could be!) But... with that number of wheels to my name, I was always curious what tension I was ultimately stopping at. So I've had this meter at my side for maybe about five years now.

If you're the least bit neurotic or OCD, this tension meter will simultaneously be the best and worst friend in your toolkit. It's possible, for instance, to perform your initial lacing to a low tension value, rather than driving the nipples to where the spoke threads just disappear below the nipple. Possible, but a huge time waster.

It's possible to go around and around and around and around again, a quarter turn tighter here, a quarter turn looser there, in an attempt to achieve "perfect" uniform tension as indicated the the Park's scale. Again, a huge time waster.

Here's how I prefer to use the tension meter: leave it in the box initially. Lace the wheel, lightly tension, stress relieve the spokes, build the tension and true with care. All the while, pluck the spokes and listen to the tone. Pull the tension meter out to verify final tension, but then trust your ears while plucking your way around the wheel looking for noticeably high pitched (over tensioned) or low toned spokes.

This meter is great as a final check, and a neat and somewhat inexpensive toy in that respect, but when you're comparing successive spokes in a fully-built wheel, the plucked tone they generate is going to highlight the problem areas far more quickly and just as reliably as this meter.

In a nutshell: This works, and will give you a numeric value to tension to, but *won't* give you a more reliable wheel than what you're capable of building without it. So by all means, pick one up if you're curious and don't mind the investment, but don't add it on your "essential items" list, as it's not a substitute for care and patience and understanding, and definitely not a crutch for inexperience.

6 of 7 found the following review helpful:

Got-to-have product for wheels May 30, 2010 By Gary Willcox "GreaseIsDWord"
If you work with your wheels at all with spoke tensioning, truing, building, etc., this is a must. As this product was arriving, I did a test and trued a 28 spoke road wheel with round spokes as best as I could. I'm not a bike mechanic, just an enthusiast. The wheel was spot on. When I got the Park Meter, I checked all the spokes. All where within tolerance, but two where 2/3 of what they should have been. It is also a great way to get a start on a good wheel true. Once you know the spokes are in the ballpark, you can start to true from there. Why bother if you don't have a baseline. I go thru and get them all close, not paying too much attention to true, then go back and get true, round, and dish spot on. Amazon is the absolute cheapest anywhere for this product. You can get very quick using this product after little use. In addition to the instrument you purchase, there are two more things in the box -- a reference chart, and a spoke gauge tool. The theory is that you look up what the tension should be for the type and thickness/diameter of spoke on the wheel, then cross reference the range of generic number that reads on the tool. The needle on the tool doesn't have units (because of diameter, blade thickness, and type), but when you look up what type and size spoke you are working with, the number on the meter just becomes a reference point. Don't just true your wheels on your bike using your brake pads, etc. If you don't start out with a real truing stand, get an old bike fork and drill a hole in a block of wood, mount the fork up-side-down, and use a spring clamp with a blade of plastic or aluminum strip/plate as the index. To work with a rear wheel, use the Q/R skewer to clamp it outside of the fork like you would on an inexpensive one-armed truing stand. Then save up for that $200 truing stand you want.

5 of 6 found the following review helpful:

Park Tool Tension Meter TM-1 is a COOL TOOL! Nov 30, 2009 By M. Bennett
Park Tool Tension Meter TM-1 is a COOL TOOL!

Ordered directly from Amazon and recieved quickly! Good Deal!

I strongly recommend this tool. It's sturdy, reliable and simple to use! The instructions are perfectly clear and not complicated. It takes less than 3 minutes to test each spoke in a 36 spoke wheel. Can be used on the bike, or off. The trouble of it is, that it's so easy to get your wheels to factory specs, it makes you think you know what you're doing:)

I cannot perceive why anyone would pay more for a spoke tension meter. There is a 40% leeway in adjustments, so splitting hairs is not necessary! (-20% to +20% of ideal tension)

I see talk on bicycle blogs about re-calibrating the tension meters, and meters costing $600! If you're not working for NASA or a scientific laboratory, don't be concerned with splitting hairs. This meter can be re-calibrated, but once you use it, you'll see that re-calibration will probably never be necessary.

Point of this report is that you will enjoy much less trouble (down time) because your wheels are factory strong at all times. Under-tensioned spokes cause spokes to break. One can have ALL SPOKES SOUND THE SAME and all spokes can be under-tensioned, so the 'sound technique' is not a valid way to judge true tension of your spokes! So I recommend that you don't go for the sound! Go for known specifications and your spokes will stop breaking!

I was paying a bicycle shop to replace the spokes on my mountain bike and I learned with this tool that the bicycle shop did not check the tension on my other spokes and that their work was a nightmare! No wonder the spokes kept breaking! Now, I ride the trails and my bike is in one piece at the end!

Do yourself a favor and get this tool! You'll be passing the guys on the trail that are limping back with broken spokes that use 'music notes' to tension their spokes! Let'em make music slowly, while you conquer the trail!

See all 29 customer reviews on Amazon.com