I’ve been getting more interested in bike wheel maintenance and repair, so I decided I needed some more tools. I have broken a lot of wheel spokes and while I think part of that is the quality of the spokes, another big part of it is tension. If the spokes aren’t evenly tensioned one of them will be under more pressure than the others and might fail. A tension meter tool isn’t that expensive and could save you on a broken spoke. I shopped around and liked the reviews and pricing for the West Biking tool. Have a look:
Comes with a large instruction manual with charts for its use, a spoke wrench, and a tool for measuring spoke diameter.
Use
Very easy to use, just pull the handle and put the spoke between the three posts on the middle of the spoke. Release the handle and read the tension on the meter. I used this to check a wheelset I have to confirm that all the spokes are approximately the same tension. There should be no more than a 20% difference in tension between the spokes. This tool could save you on breaking spokes if you can find bad tension before a break. The wheelset I test checked out good. They sell for less than $20 so a great deal.
Frugal Average Bicyclist 