I'm very tempted to give that a go, as my spokes feel very loose and the wheels are an utter pig when trying to ease the bead over the rim. My mountain bike is so easy I barely need tyre levers, but a puncture on my road bike leads to half an hour of swearing, and tyre levers pinging off at high speed tangents. I dread punctures on this bike, especially if I'm out on a cold night ride.
Can you offer any advice about how to tension the wheel without pulling it out of true? I'll be doing it with the wheel in-situ, using the forks/brakes as my "truing jig".
First things first, what's the best oil to free spokes? These wheels are from the 1990s so nothing has moved in years!
This isn't easy for novices. It may actually take you several days to get right. But...you sound brave.
Firstly, the wheel must be true to start off with. If it isn't, true it up by pulling wobbles out. I say pull and by that I mean that you NEVER loosen spokes to fix wobbles. This is because nipples cannot tighten themselves, they can only loosen themselves. So, if the wobble is to the left, tighten on the right. Find the epicentre of the wobble and tighten the spoke at the centre of that. Obviously this advice is only valid for a wheel with very little wobbles.
Secondly, once the wheel is straight, find out if all the nipples turn freely. Do this by unscrewing them a given amount - a half turn say, and then turning them back to where they belong. If none of them are frozen, you're good. Check for wobbles again. Oil all the spokes. Let a drop of 3-in-1 thickness oil loose at each nipple, when the nipple is at the bottom. Release the oil drop so that it runs down the spoke into the nipple. Drop another drop (half drop actually, one drop is too much) into the gap where the nipple enters the rim. Once you've done all the wheels, spin the wheel so that the centripetal force forces the oil into where it is needed.
Now. Take a deep breath and tackle the front wheel first. I assume it is a bike with rim brakes. This assumption leads to the fact that both sides of the wheel will have the same (approximate) spoke tension to keep it centered. Start at the wheel valve. Look at your nipple spanner and decide on an orientation to engage and always stick to this orientation. Let's say the spanner is one of those flat Spokeys. Decide that you will always engage so that the spanner is 90 degrees from the wheel's centre line. Obviously the nipple may not be oriented 90 degrees yet and the spanner will now veer of say 45 degrees. No worries, simply wind the spoke up (not down) the required 1/8 turn to the spanner 90 degrees. Now turn the nipple exactly 1/2 half turn. Don't just stop when you've reached the 1/2 point. Overshoot, turn back and then settle. This is important and will help you prevent spoke windup. Do it with one confident move. Wind it up 3/4 turn, turn back one half and wind 1/4 again. This gives you a half turn nipple advancement. Go right round the wheel until you reach the wheel valve again.
Now true the wheel again. You should need only minor tweaks, no spoke should need even 1/2 a turn.
Fit the tyre and see if it is better. If it isn't, go again. You should be able to get up to two more full turns in a wheel that wasn't really tensioned to start off with. If you have given the left and right exactly the same number of turns, your wheel should still be centered. Drink a beer.
Now that you've done the front wheel, you will be a bit more dexterous and confident. The back wheel is more difficult because the one side - the right hand side, has more tension than the other side.
What you need to do here is wind the right up more than the left. I suggest you first work on all the right hand spokes - give them 1 full turn (with the whole overshooting, winding back story) and then true the wheel. It will be off-centre at this stage but don't panic. Drink another beer. Now tackle the left and advance all the nipples by 1/2 turn only. The wheel won't be perfectly centered but it won't be bad. True it again (still not centered), try the tyre for fitment and decide if you need more tension or not. If you need more tension, first undo whatever turns you put into the left. Then advance the right by another 1/2 turn. Now go back and do the left one complete turn. This means you would have turned the right 1 1/2 turns and the left 1. Once the wheel is true, put the wheel in the bike and decide how much it has to move to the left or to the right. It should be rideable now even if the brakes are a little off-centre.
We'll decide on the next step once you've come this far. We need to get a feeling for how difficult the nipples are to turn and how badly the wheel is off centre. The way forward may require loosening one side or tightening the other. It just depends on how much tension there is in there at this stage.
Oil is your friend. Those nipples must move smoothly and not crack and ratchet on.
Edit: I should have mentioned that increased spoke tension will have almost zero effect on a deep section rim and most effect on a shallow, box section like Mavic MA2 or equivalent.
