tightening spokes

justo

I give my back wheel a hard time. I'm overweight at 14.5 stone and cycle 20 miles a day.

I have frequently enough (perhaps 2 or 3 a year) popped spokes on the back wheel and got them replaced in the LBS.

At the moment a lot of the spokes on the back are loose and it is causing a rattle when I'm not peddling or when I crunch up a hill.

Question: is tightening them back a job I can undertake or does a mechanic have to tackle it? I am cautious of messing up the allignment of the wheel if I tighten them incorrectly.

thx.

07Lapierre

justo wrote: »

I give my back wheel a hard time. I'm overweight at 14.5 stone and cycle 20 miles a day.

I have frequently enough (perhaps 2 or 3 a year) popped spokes on the back wheel and got them replaced in the LBS.

At the moment a lot of the spokes on the back are loose and it is causing a rattle when I'm not peddling or when I crunch up a hill.

Question: is tightening them back a job I can undertake or does a mechanic have to tackle it? I am cautious of messing up the allignment of the wheel if I tighten them incorrectly.

thx.

Unless you know what your doing, thats exactly what will happen. Search youtube. there are plenty of tutorial videos which will give you an idea of how its done.

ednwireland

justo wrote: »

At the moment a lot of the spokes on the back are loose and it is causing a rattle when I'm not peddling or when I crunch up a hill.

:eek:

a wheel is held together by the spoke tension if one goes you can get home, if you have more the expect catastrophic wheel faluire wneh the rim collapses

as far as tightening spokes goes,, that sounds like a take it into a shop job.

i find replacing broken spokes relatively easy, pop a new one in tighten up

loose spokes i find much more difficult - my commuter had a loose spoke and i'm still trying to get it true weeks later with a trueing stand (i am not good at trueing wheels)

davey101

Whatever you do, do it slowly and in very small increments. keep track of what you have tightened and the shape of the wheel.
I have only started doing my own wheels lately and as long as you take it real easy there shouldn't be any thing to difficult.

Pablo_

i'd be willing to give my wheel a true before i buy a new one, i don't mind if it takes ages, i will get a spoke tightener on crc but out of interest do i need a special tool to take off the cassete ? and out of more interest to take apart the hub from flanges ?

CramCycle

Get a spoke tensioner if you can afford it. i got the park tools one from amazon and it makes the whole job easier in my opinion

Holyboy

Whether you do it your self or not I would get it sorted ASAP but the spoke elbows will have suffered alot of fatigue from vibration due to being lose in the spoke holes and even if tensioned up perfectly they may just snap one by one! Also once its tensioned up apart from side to side truing it will probably need a bit of attention paid to up and down movement, as in the rim may be egg shaped now, but sure have a go,whats the worst that could happen? A new wheel, its not like the bikes going to explode!:)

Icyseanfitz

sorry for the hijack op but its in a similar vein, anyone know of a decently priced wheel truing stand?

zil

If your constantly popping spokes might be an idea to shell out a bit of cash and get the wheel rebuilt with double strength spokes (probably cost about €60). I had to do the same myself when I got my first bike.

victorcarrera

What kind of bike and how many spokes on that rear wheel ?
If its a road bike and the rear wheel has less than 32 spokes I would buy something cheap and strong like a Mavic Open pro 32 spoke or even go up to 36. Then practice your truing skills on the old wheel. Don't bother with the truing stand just turn the bike upside down and use the brake blocks to true it.
Truing is a delicate skill. But google it and study it well before trying it out.