How to tell if a newly built bicycle wheel is safe to ride? I recently finished building my first ever bicycle wheel, and now I'm planning to test ride it. Since this is my first wheel build I want to safely test it to ensure that the wheel won't fail catastrophically while I'm mountain biking or riding in busy traffic. The wheel is both laterally and radially true, dished right, and with spokes that appears to be evenly tensioned. It looks and feels like a real bicycle wheel, in other words. But looks can be deceiving. How do I safely test a new bicycle wheel to get a reasonable assurance that it is safe for heavier useage such as mountain biking?
You said that it is laterally and radially true, dished correctly and properly tensioned. Sounds like its ready to ride! As far as i know there is no real true test method other than riding. I would just take an easy ride around the block or on a tame trail. You may find that after riding for a bit you will need to re-tension some of the spokes after they have settled in. This is pretty normal with use.