Hello all

I'm asking this question for a mate so I don't know all the details but he has just had Halfords re-spoke a rim for him under warranty. He went down to pick the wheels up and some (quite a few) of his spokes are twisted (bladed road spokes).

He said to them that surely that cant be right and the guy in the shop said it's very hard to get them straight and that they should straighten themselves up over time. If they don't then loosen them off 1/4 turn.

Is this correct or are halfords just being halfords if you know what i mean?

Scott

just being halfords you try to avoid spoke twisting when building wheels but it does /can happen.

Lay wheel on the floor /resting on hub on wood etc and press down on the rim /rotate press rotate press etc you should hear the sound of the spokes tinking as they untwist.

That said if they do not know
1. how yo untwist
2. avoid it with a bladed spoke – you need tape on normal ones
3. cannot be arsed to undo it 1/4 turn themselves (risk of uneven tension etc)

I would be less than happy to ride the wheel

Sounds a bit like bollox, I have never built a wheel, but still sounds like bollox.
(not the it being tricky bit, I am sure it is trickier, but that is why they are doing it and not your mate).

They generally won't untwist like that, that'll only pre-stress the wheel, still a good thing, but won't have the desired effect!

It smack of them not knowing how to build a wheel frankly, I wouldn't accept it. You need to hold the spokes still while you build them, Bontrager do a really good key ring/spoke key with a slot in it for holding spokes, or a block of wood with a slot cut into it works. Oiling the nipples can help so they turn more easily without 'binding' on the spoke.

If they straighten themselves out while riding, it means the tension in the spokes is changing and your wheel goes out of true. Load of tosh. As mentioned above, there are tools or easy home made tools for stopping bladed spokes twisting.

Yep there is a special slotted tool for holding bladed spokes whilst building. Typical Halfords response.

Ex Halfords Employee here, as far as i know halfords has no official training which includes wheel building. I undertook a trial course in my time there which was excellent but after assessment was abandoned on cost grounds.

utter tosh.
Take them back.

I presume they were straight (the spokes that is) when he bought them, if I handed over a wheel to be trued, and returned to it's original state when purchased, I wouldn't expect bladed spokes to come back on the piss…. Don't accept it…

What Speshpaul said +1.
There is no reason for the bladed spokes to be twisted. Not even a little bit. They won't straighten out on their own.

Like SV said there is a tool for keeping the spokes straight when truing. Even a pair of pliers and a rag would do the trick.

SB

Typical halfords bollocks from someone who doesn't give a flying **** about the customer. The spokes should not be twisted at all. When you build using bladed spokes you use a spoke grip. If they're badly twisted, the chances are they've been significantly weakened, and will snap very soon.

Take it back, demand a rebuild, or better still, a replacement. Don't be fobbed off.

They bogged up the wheel build IMO.

It doesn't matter too much with round spokes, and even then it can be mostly avoided when tightening by turning the nipple back a bit after each half/quarter turn. It's true that they do untwist a little bit with use but not completely and then you need to re-true the wheel until it settles down.

With flat spokes, the flats of the spoke should not twist throughout their length and the builder should have taken steps to avoid it, esp. as there is a specific tool to prevent it. I would take it back and complain (politely) that they do a proper job.

Muppets..spokes knackered now..I wouldnt ride them ..

Just to illustrate how bad Halfords staff are …sent Mrs into the local one on sat for "little stick on patches to stop cables rubbing the frame"…guys in Bikehut not heard of em!…I spoke to the guy on her moby and had to tell him where they were IN HIS STORE!

Assuming the spokes are something decent like CX-Rays or Aerolites they'll be a hell of a lot tougher than you'd expect, they certainly won't all be about to fail.

I've seen one that's been twisted about 20 times, can't find the picture any more though.

I rebuilt one of my wheels a couple of years ago, and where some of the nipples had seized I ended up twisting a few of the spokes, I rebuilt the wheel with the untwisted spokes and never had a problem.

They still should have done it properly though!

guys in Bikehut not heard of em

Yep – went in and asked for some Shimano Brake Fluid (as in mineral oil), the two guys working never knew MTB brakes could be hydraulic/fluid filled. Helped myself to the LHM stuff.

the guy in the shop said it's very hard to get them straight and that they should straighten themselves up over time.

It can be tricky and they may straighten themselves but it's just a poor job. a good wheel builder would ensure that they were untwisted before considering the job finished

If they don't then loosen them off 1/4 turn.

Possibly right but then they should have done that themselves. they're fobbing him off with a poor job.

hahaha!

reminds me of the one and only time I took a wheel to halfords to be trued, ended up with a perfectly true wheel, with about the half the spokes missing any tension at all!

Bought a spokey and a packet of zip ties on the way out.

An update that may make you laugh, cry etc etc.

Update
They decided toi change his rim, they then said they was having a problem with the spokes snapping when trying to rebuild the wheel and had spoken to dt swiss about the spokes not straightening up. after him weeding the truth out of them it turns out the guy was trying to spoke up a 20 spoke wheel on a 16 spoke hub which meant apparently the spokes were to short and snapping. in the end they gave up trying to rebuild the wheel and got a new one in for him which is what he wanted in the first place. at all times he still insisted he had been trained by halfords to build wheels.

I hope you get the jist of that.