Oh, the tension of it all – it makes all the difference. They’re laced, tensioned, trued, and dished. I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out. The front rim was much easier than the rear. The front rim trued up quickly and was radially true from the beginning. The lateral true was fairly easy on this one and the dish was correct and never varied. The Park TM-1 says the front spokes are at 95 kgf average.
The rear wheel took longer – both to lace and to tension, true, and dish. I laced the NDS 3-cross and the DS 2-cross. The Campagnolo hub is slightly larger in diameter on the DS (2mm). I finally figured out how to get the DS laced after lacing the NDS completely (both sets of 8 spokes). The DS elbow-out spokes were simple, the head-out DS spokes were a nuisance but I got them in OK. Truing and tensioning was a little tricky. It seemed like every time I trued the wheel the dish shifted. Then I would correct the dish and the truing went out the window. I only had one spot to fix to get the radial true correct, so that wasn’t too bad. After a couple of iterations, the true was perfect and the dish was perfect too. The DS tension was 138 kgf and the NDS tension was 70 kgf.
I was hoping for less difference between NDS and DS with the larger DS flange diameter and the 3-cross / 2-cross lacing.
Oh, well, I’ll let them sit for a day or two and then stress-relieve them one more time, install the rim tape, tube and tire.
My first set of wheels built from scratch. A ground-breaking (but not pavement-meeting) occasion. One big step closer to finishing the LeMond restoration.