I don’t like getting flats and I don’t like my wheels going out of true, so I just take a bunch of extra annoying steps at the beginning of a set of wheels.
Usually if I am building up a wheelset, I’ll install the tape, install the tube, inflate to max tire pressure for the tire, and then do a complete re-check and re-true of the wheel to balance the tension and relieve any spoke stretching.
The next day, i’ll go back to everything without a tube and do the tension check again, bring the tension up to the right kgf point i’m going for, and then I am good to go.
It’s crazy and a ton of time, but I’ve been riding the same race wheels since 2016 across 4 different bikes with zero broken spokes and no real significant truing other than an occasional quarter turn here or there.
Why do you say that these would be built with no tension in the spokes? Lightweight wheels, which are very similar in concept and have the same continuous spokes through the hub flange, that have been around since the 90’s are built with a pre-stressing method where the rims are bonded (and baked) to tensioned spokes before the tension is released. The design of the Meilenstein (previously the Standard) has change very little over the last 30 years and were used to win the tour in 2019. I can’t imagine that Scott have strayed far from the tried and true here.
I know Mad Fiber wheels had much lower tension and were, by all accounts pretty crap. I think they were constructed with the spokes and flanges flat, and some tension was introduced by inserting the hub body between them, although my memory of that could be a bit off
One set of tensionless wheels I do remember were the Paul Lew PRO VT1. I think those relied on spoke compression to give stiffness. They also had a third flange in the middle of the rear hub to transfer the torsional loads. Unsurprisingly, these wheels did not stand the test of time.
Sounds like you have far better info than me. I was speculating on limited info and general comparison to tensioning on normal spoked wheels. I am pretty sure some older stuff like the Spins and such were not tensioned. Must be some new tech and processes for at least some of them from your info. Very cool progress
Spins? Must admit I’m not familiar with those although it has reminded me of the original Spynergy Rev-X wheels. Those were the ones with the eight flat bladed spokes. No idea how they were made.
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