Loose spokes
- Thread starter Nevis
- Start date
bmwpowere36m3
Member
Wheels need to be re-tensioned and trued, normal maintenance for aluminum rims and less so with carbon. Also depends on how hard you ride, as wheels are consumables IMO.
Does the rim have any damage, like flat spots? All the spokes or some of them a loose? Start with re-tensioning and see how it goes.
Does the rim have any damage, like flat spots? All the spokes or some of them a loose? Start with re-tensioning and see how it goes.
Adjusting spoke tension is a black art!
Whenever I have tried, it always makes things worse.
But that's just me.
Whenever I have tried, it always makes things worse.
But that's just me.
RickBullotta
E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Adjusting spoke tension is a black art!
Whenever I have tried, it always makes things worse.
But that's just me.
I can't tell you how many people I've had to teach that a spoke wrench can also be used to loosen spokes, not just tighten them!
- Thread starter
- #5
The spokes were all OK when I set out a hour before and there's no damage to the wheel. Put it into my local shop to sort .
Unless you used a tension gauge, then you have no way of knowing if the spokes were ok.
If your BSB (Bike Store Boy) doesn't put a tension gauge on each spoke, then he's just screwing you. Some of these jokers will tell you that they can listen to the spokes. When they spew such nonsense, I wonder why someone with perfect pitch would be shuffling around in the back of a bike store rather than sitting in the recording studio turning out platinum records.
Regardless, it's good practice to check the spoke tensions when a bike is new, after 100 miles, and again after 250 miles. If you're running aluminum rims, you'll want to check them again every 500 or so miles. If you're running carbon rims, you can go much longer.
As someone who builds all his own wheels. You get a feel for each spokes tension, by pinching together two spokes, just after they cross over. Sure the first time you tension a wheel, you check tension with a gauge. But once you've tensioned many wheels. Your hand is a pretty accurate gauge. I then recheck tension after the first hard ride. Then every 12 months.
I've built at least 10 rear wheels. None of my wheels have ever broken a spoke, or gone out of shape, and I ride pretty hard. I cannot say the same for the factory built wheels, that were installed on some of my new EMTBs.
Alastairrayment
New Member
- May 11, 2026
- 2
- 3
Help my wheels for many years never used a spoke tension and never had a problem but then I'm not racing. Your point about checking the tension where they cross over is spot on. If you buy a new bike check it then and assume it's okay, then you know what to look for.
I had a similar thing. Not on my Cube, but my Cannondale. I got back from a ride a few weeks after I got it and realised I could hear a strange 'plink' as the wheel rotated. I bought all the gear to fix it, but still had no idea what I was doing. Took the whole bike into a local shop and they sorted the wheels and had to do a bunch of other adjustments & tightening up - probably my fault for buying from an online / CtW place
Check if your bike qualified for a complimentary check up from where you bought it, or just whip the wheels off and take them to a local shop. It's not a while-you-wait thing but you won't be without for more than a couple of days.
Assuming you get the spokes tightened up properly, and it doesn't happen again I wouldn't be unduly concerned.
Check if your bike qualified for a complimentary check up from where you bought it, or just whip the wheels off and take them to a local shop. It's not a while-you-wait thing but you won't be without for more than a couple of days.
Assuming you get the spokes tightened up properly, and it doesn't happen again I wouldn't be unduly concerned.
As a self confessed Sorcer'ers apprentice, Where do you find what the spoke tension should be? Who's website? The bike maker, the wheel maker, the rim maker or the spoke supplier?
charleyc
Member
This has happened to me when I've built a wheel with too little tension and ridden it too hard. It means whoever built your wheel messed up, but it's fixable by a professional as discussed above.
Do note that having ridden the wheel with low tension will have probably stressed the spoke heads -- assuming you have j-bend spokes -- so you may be a bit more prone to breaking spokes on that wheel in the future.
Before I got totally flummoxed about the whole thing, I tried to use the Park Tool Wheel Tension web page (here). I think it sort of chimes with what the bike shop said in that the balance, or average of the spoke tension was more important than chasing a specific number.As a self confessed Sorcer'ers apprentice, Where do you find what the spoke tension should be? Who's website? The bike maker, the wheel maker, the rim maker or the spoke supplier?
You stick the gauge on the spoke, and it gives you an arbitrary number. Then you go to the chart, where you look up the spoke diameter and material. Then you use a straight edge to find the tension in pounds. Then you ask Siri to convert pounds to kilograms. Then you go to the web page of the rim manufacturer, and look up the recommended tension for that particular model. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.As a self confessed Sorcer'ers apprentice, Where do you find what the spoke tension should be? Who's website? The bike maker, the wheel maker, the rim maker or the spoke supplier?
As you might have gathered, you have to be really smart to do all that. Having been blessed with a charming demeanor and good looks over intelligence, I'm forced to take shortcuts. When a bike (or wheel) is new, before riding it hte first time, I get out the gauge and take readings on all the spokes. The data is scribbled down on the spoke tension gauge box. Whenever I check the spokes, I shoot for the numbers on the box.
Trust me when I tell you that your spokes will "break in" over the first five hundred miles. Tensions always change substantially.
