On my ride to work yesterady I noticed a funny creaky noise that came and went along the way. Gave it a quick once over at work and discovered that some of my spokes on the non drive side of the rear wheel have some flex in them. By this I mean that if I hold them above where they cross over and squeeze my fingers together they move noticibly inward.

I have a spoke key on my multi tool but have to say I’ve never used it before. Whats the best way to go out about sorting this or is it a job for my lbs?

Cheers All 🙂

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcZ1jjB_AdQ[/video]

its really easy to have a go yourself

Use your finger/ a pencil to fudge a truing stand

(or you can ignore the detail and just tighten the spokes by screwing in the spoke nipple)

It would be job for your LBS and ask if they will show you what needs to be done when they are doing it. Should not cost alot.

Easy to do yourself, getting perfect true-ness (“truth”?) may require lbs or more time.

If it’s old/corroded. lube the nipples at the thread and rim-seat.

EDIT as a former lbs wrench, it can actually be pretty tedious when folk expect free lessons so they can take your business away, unless they are decent spenders already.

Best I had was “How do I fit these disc brakes that I got cheap online?”

You can buy a spoke key to turn the nipple which is probably the best way to go.

This is the best purchase I’ve ever made. Trueing wheels is a breeze.

Excellent stuff, thanks for replies and vid I shall get busy over the weekend.

For now though its on with the slick wheels and a road hack to work.

buy a proper key, not a multitool one, and do it yourself.

basic tensioning and straightening is a doddle, getting that last 1mm of wobble out is the hard part i find 🙂

to tension, put a drop of penetrating oil on each spoke nipple, to lubricate the threads as much as possible before turning them, them tighten them so they are all as similar as you can feel.
jobs a goodun.

i tightened some of mine the other week with a shifting spanner, seemed to work ok, i’d imagine a spoke key is much better though… saying that though, i just put my bike into the shop last night to get the wheels checked properly, wheel truing is a voodoo art that i’ve yet to learn.

one of these:

and then pluck the spokes to make sure they make the same sound on either side

worth getting the roger musson book for £9 lots of useful hints

tightened some of mine the other week with a shifting spanner, seemed to work ok, i’d imagine a spoke key is much better though… saying that though, i just put my bike into the shop last night to get the wheels checked properly, wheel truing is a voodoo art that i’ve yet to learn.

It’s actually very easy once you know how. That video above is a very good starting point, but I learned many moons ago from an article in MBUK becasue I couldn’t afford to keep getting my wheels trued at £10 a time. That was pre V-brake too, I’m talking cantis!

On thing to note: Simply ‘tightening loose spokes’ rarely has the desired affect (It usually makes things worse IME) so I’d steer clear of that if I were you, until you know what you’re doing! 🙂

^ps apols image was a bit big!

Simply ‘tightening loose spokes’ rarely has the desired affect (It usually makes things worse IME)

+1.
Especially if the rim is being pulled true due to a previous buckle.

One important thing that nobody has mentioned(unless it’s on the video link), is that you turn the spoke key anti-clockwise to tighten, if nobody tells you this then you can get in a right mess until you realise what’s happening.

Simply ‘tightening loose spokes’ rarely has the desired affect (It usually makes things worse IME)

+1.
Especially if the rim is being pulled true due to a previous buckle.

One important thing that nobody has mentioned(unless it’s on the video link), is that you turn the spoke key anti-clockwise to tighten, if nobody tells you this then you can get in a right mess until you realise what’s happening.

It depends on whether you are looking at the rim from the direction of the centre of the wheel or from the outside of the wheel 😉

stayhigh – Member

“By this I mean that if I hold them above where they cross over and squeeze my fingers together they move noticibly inward.”

Is it just me, or is this completely normal?

On a dished wheel non drive-side spokes will be under less tension than the drive side.

On a dished wheel non drive-side spokes will be under less tension than the drive side.

same but to a lesser degree for a front disc wheel as they are dished slightly

that is why if you are using the plucking method to check spoke tension evenness you compares spokes on one side only