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Pinging spoke - but nothing appears broken.

by Grahamd
Mon, Mar 21, 2016 20:47
6

Hi all, did (for me) a tough ride yesterday involving a number of challenging gradients. On the  steapest of the slopes could hear one of the rear spokes on my Shimano R501 s "pinging" but as soon as my effort lessoned the pinging stopped. 

I am 95kg and was putting in a lot of effort. Wheels are only 8 weeks old and covered approx 250 miles.

Would appreciate your thoughts, as don't want to waste money chasing an irritation  but if this is a sign of failure in the wheel somewhere don't want to be stranded due to inertia.

Thanks

 

 

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6 comments

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Grahamd | 8 years ago
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Many thanks for the feedback all, which is much appreciated, you have allayed my fears over wheel failure.

Will get my LBS to check, as I am no mechanic and prefer to enjoy riding rather than tinkering.

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GerardR replied to Grahamd | 8 years ago
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Grahamd wrote:

Many thanks for the feedback all, which is much appreciated, you have allayed my fears over wheel failure.

Will get my LBS to check, as I am no mechanic and prefer to enjoy riding rather than tinkering.

No, have a go yourself.  You can't damage anything, but you can learn something!

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VeloUSA | 8 years ago
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I agree with the previous comments. An easy check for spoke tension is to pluck each spoke and listen to tone emitted. An off-tone indicates a spoke or spokes over/under tensioned. Take the wheel to your LBS for retensioning. 

 

 

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KiwiMike | 8 years ago
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This is very typical for machine-built wheels. It's the over-twisted spokes settling themselves back into their natural orientation, and happens under load because as you tension one set of spokes due to torque from the hub, the opposing set loosens enough for the nipples to move in the rim.

Or words to that effect. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to correct my terminology.

Bottom line is it's the wheel settling down, nothing to be alarmed about. Keep an eye on spoke tension / trueness over a while (which you should do anyway).  And if you need to, make sure you back spokes off after tensioning. 

 

Altenratley, if it's really bugging you, you can stress-releave the wheel by doing this: 

http://www.wheelfanatyk.com/blog/wheel-building-tip-no-4-how-to-pre-stre...

More Jobstian wisdom here:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/stress-relieving.html

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joemmo | 8 years ago
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...or where the spokes lace over each other. try cleaning them and adding a spot of lube at the crossing point.

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CXR94Di2 | 8 years ago
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It could be the nipples are moving in the holes. Drip a little bit of oil down each one and see if it stops

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