Loose spoke

MasterOfNone

So I have just invested in my first road bike to commute to work with. It is the Felt F85. I started commuting last week (3days - 50miles/80km) and this week (tomorrow will be my first 4th consecutive day) - I'm really enjoying it and already notice the difference. I am in love with the bike also. Problem is, I commute to West of London and have been hitting pot holes like it's going out of fashion. I put this down to being unfamiliar with my route, it being dark and I'd also rather 'ride' the bump than swerve into the path of a lorry. To the point, today I was cycling home and heard a rattle in my front wheel. Initially I thought it was the screw nut to my valve, but that was tight, so I made it home and discovered it was a loose spoke. I had a fiddle and managed to tighten the 'nipple' with my fingers (concentrate! ). Now my concern is, would this be down to a manufacturing error or could it have been caused by me knocking the crap out of my brand new bike in the second week of riding it? If it's the latter, then surely I should be concerned? Lastly, is this a common issue with road bikes?

Thanks in advance.

craker

Often happens to new wheels as they bed in. If you got it from your LBS they should have offered a free 6 week service to sort this sort of thing out. If you haven't got a spoke key (get one) take it back to the shop they should be able to sort it while you wait.

What sort of wheels are they? Are they suitable for a tough urban commute? Bigger tyres and lots of spokes will help keep you on the road.

MasterOfNone

Thanks for taking the time out to reply.

I bought it from Wiggle, although I am familiar with my LBS. I purchased a spoke key this evening online, which I imagine will get some good use now. The wheels I have are Mavic CXP22 and I fitted Gatorskins 25mm on recently.
Will monitor the situation, basically my worse fear was I did some damage to the wheel but that doesn't appear to be the case.

onbike 1939

Properly made wheels do not have to "bed in". If spokes become loose then the spokes have not been properly tensioned and stressed when the wheel was built. If you are not experienced at building wheels and given this is a new wheel, then I would return the wheel rather than attempt to repair.

slowbike

CXP22 rims are fairly robust - we've got them and use them for anything a bit rough - although I do have 30 & 32mm tyres on them now.
My wife used to commute down rough cyclepaths with 23mm slicks on them - so you should find them fine.
Obviously you need to get yours checked out - one loose spoke isn't good, but more could be on their way so it's worth getting it checked. IIRC, getting a new spoke, fitting and truing for one wheel from my expensive wheelset was ~£20 and a fair chunk of that was the spoke.

You can check relative tension of the spokes by plucking them - they should all be around the same sort of pitch - any that aren't need attention ...

buckles

onbike 1939 wrote:

Properly made wheels do not have to "bed in". If spokes become loose then the spokes have not been properly tensioned and stressed when the wheel was built. If you are not experienced at building wheels and given this is a new wheel, then I would return the wheel rather than attempt to repair.

Agree with this - Two weeks or even two years of commuting should not make spokes come loose on any wheel.

I've had spokes come loose on a wheel I replaced the rim on years ago but that was when I didn't know what I was doing - I had simply assembled it rather than equalising the tension and stressing the spokes after every round of truing

Also had THREE spokes snap in an R500 wheel, this is a 24 spoke rear wheel, probably too few spokes for me.

rolf_f

Buckles wrote:

Agree with this - Two weeks or even two years of commuting should not make spokes come loose on any wheel.

+1. I had a spoke come loose on a Campagnolo Khamsin a couple of months or so back - it had done about 10000 miles of commuting. I tightened it up with a spoke key and it has now happily done a couple of thousand more.

dennisn

I'm going to cast my vote along with the guys urging you to take it to the shop. DO NOT simply buy a spoke key and start "fiddling" around with your spokes. Find out the how's and why's of wheel truing BEFORE you touch that rim with a spoke key.

MasterOfNone

Thanks for all of the replies. I've gathered that the general consensus is that this isn't the norm.
This morning I was ready to take my bike for the commute but the dreaded rattling was back and the spoke had become loose again. I e-mailed Wiggle over the weekend so I will be interested to hear what they come back with.