Basically, I just got these wheels and they were built by a friend from home so I didn't expect them to be perfect. After about 1-2 weeks of riding, a few of the spokes were extremely loose and two came all the way out of and were hanging loose. I took it to a shop and had the wheel fully re-tensioned and trued and it was good….. for about another 2 weeks. I just took this video today, judging off of my highly evolved pattern recognition, it feels like if I take it to to a shop to get retensioned / trued again it's just going to be this cycle again. Any ideas??
What could cause these spokes to loosen again already??
byu/Long_University_1437 inbikewrench
by Long_University_1437
7 Comments
Do the nipples come loose? What kind of quality did your friend use?
Fresh wheels have a tendency to become a little looser after some riding, but this is too much. Highly possible the shop you brought it to, don’t have a good wheel-builder at hand. Try another shop.
Personally, I’ve never respected straight-laced wheels. The weight you save, is insignificant, IMO, so it’s just style points. Cross-laced ones will always be more durable.
How much do you weigh? How hard do you ride this? Is the rim bent? Factoring in a few variables, it may be possible this spoke setup just isn’t for you.
Insufficient tension is usually what causes this. Was any spoke prep/oil/threadlock used? Do you know what tension they were built to? Was there any stress relief done?
If you paid a shop to fully retension and true the wheel 2 weeks ago bring it right back to them and ask if they have a more experienced wheel guy who can redo it.
My guess is that your friend didn’t use spoke prep. It’s a thread lock/anti seize that can be applied before building a wheel. Some nipples have it pre applied to the threads, like dt squareox.
I spy gravel tires and a low spoke count. Might be your wheel is too light for what you throw at it
How good a wheel builder is your friend? Gravel tyres and a low spoke count are a poor combination anyway which suggests to me that if he built that wheel knowing what you were going to do with it he is more an enthusiastic amateur having a go that a wheelbuilder who would have probably told you that you would constantly have issues with that combination.
Any wheel not built up and trued to a good standard will have issues add on the poor combination mentioned above and that means more issues.
If any part of the wheel has experienced undue stress due to incorrect build or incorrect application it could possibly have already tipped the balance to the point that nothing can be done for it long term and no matter how often you get it re tensioned and trued it will just keep failing. You need to have it checked out by a wheelbuilder not just a bike shop or an amateur builder.