Loose spokes

cholasnjw

Hi,

I've got a Dahon Mu P8 which I've been using for commuting. I've had awful problems with the back wheel with spokes coming loose. Last weekend I spent an hour or two tightening all the spokes and retruing the wheel. However, by the time I got to the train station this morning (about 8 miles of road) 5 pokes were loose again, which I have now finger tightened. I did however note that the wheel was still running true.

I will check all the spokes again when I get home this evening. I'm hoping the five that came loose this morning were perhaps just a little overtight after truing the wheel and have worked loose because of that.

However, if they continue to come loose, or the wheel looses shape again, does anyone have any suggestions that might explain them continually coming loose?

Cheers,

Nick

dennisn

Not trying to sound like a jerk, but the question that comes to my mind first is - Do you know what you are doing when you re true a wheel or are you just tightening spokes?
There is more to it than that.

cholasnjw

dennisn wrote:

Not trying to sound like a jerk, but the question that comes to my mind first is - Do you know what you are doing when you re true a wheel or are you just tightening spokes?
There is more to it than that.

It was my first go a truing the wheel. I've been following a load of bits and pieces I've found on the Internet about it. I realise there's more to it than just randomly tightening spokes, but you have to start somewhere.

ride_whenever

take it to a bike shop, get it done properly, you're probably not getting them nearly tight enough.

ride_whenever

in fact your blatantly not stress relieving it enough, i'd get it dismantled and re-build completely.

OSOH

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I have a quick question on a similar topic. I took my rear wheel to be trued at a bike shop. It now seems fine, brakes no longer rubbing and spokes tight genrally, but one of the spokes is still very slack. When I questioned this I was told that it had been properly trued...can this happen? I was under the impression that all the spokes have to be tight - a loose one can allow it back out of true? Or have I misunderstood?

Thought I'd better check people's unbiased opinions, if the shop are correct and a slack spoke is fine, then fair enough; if not, I'll need to take it further with them. Ended up costing double anyway due to a puncture and damaged rim tape which I was unaware of...don't understand when it got the puncture though, as it was OK last time I rode it :roll:

cholasnjw

OK, so maybe I haven't quite got the hang of it yet, and it would be worth getting it done properly so I can see what it should be like.

My big worry is that, with the bike only being a couple of months old (should spokes really come loose that quickly?), there is something more serious wrong with the wheel and it'll end up just being cheaper to replace the wheel than take it down to a bike shop to look at.

supersonic

If the rim is warped then a perfectly evenly tensioned wheel will be slightly out of true. So it depends on how bad the warp is - and playing off true and even tension.

Even tension, and high tension is what stops a wheel from loosening in use. A slack spoke is NOT ok, as the others will just come loose. You may need a new rim as above, or they may just be useless.

Stress relieving strengthens the spokes in the build - it does not have to be done on trueing or tensioning if has already been done.