Tandem Cycling - Shimano Sweet 16's

I just dropped off my Sweet 16's at the bike store for their initial tightening after 300 miles. Manual recommended tightening after 1000km or if the wheels started to make noise. My rear wheel started to "tick" at low speed.

Inital check at the store showed a number of spokes were much less than the recommended "95" as measured on a Wheelsmith spoke tension tester.

Owners of Sweet 16's - I would recommend you do not forget to have this done.

Dwayne

We went to the tension-up routine with our sweet 16 set about a year ago. Did you by any chance checked the tension before you rode the wheels?

Don't be surprised if you have to do another trip to the shop to re-tension the wheels. We felt bad about asking help from a friend with a stand and tension gauge and after the second or third try decided to get our own. It is been sveral months of hard riding with zero problems... knock on wood.

As far as forgeting... how could you? The noise they make is... loud!

Checked ours at recommended intervals per Santana's instructions and keep tension at 26 using the Park tensiometer. Now have 2000 miles and no problems and the spoke tension has been stable.

Wait for it....

Wait for it....

We already have it...the look, the performance and the swag.:D

We already have it...the look, the performance and the swag.:D

No.... that's not "it".

Unbeknownst to y'all, the "It" I was foreshadowing is a Sweet 16 updated from BloomingCyclist. (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=296873)

We chatted briefly with BC and his lovely spouse last Saturday at the first SAG stop on the 3 State 3 Mountain Challenge and received the Reader's Digest version of the pending update. It suffices to say, be attentive to your Sweet 16s.

Don't be surprised if you have to do another trip to the shop to re-tension the wheels. We felt bad about asking help from a friend with a stand and tension gauge and after the second or third try decided to get our own.

I'd also recommend getting the long handled, shop quality spoke wrench that fits those wheels. That little aluminum thing hurts my fingers.

Wheels are still at the store. I did not check the tension for inital ride. Does aanyone know the spoke wrench size?

Thanks!

The niples measure 4.3mm but the wrench is 4.4. After considering the obscene amount of money that shimano asks for a simple spoke wrench I decided to make my own with a grinder/cutter disc out of an old steel wrench... it works great!

The reason I asked if you or someone else had measured the tension before riding the wheels is that I suspect, but do not know for sure, that shimano does not ship the wheels at the recommended and/or even tension. The number of turns that some of those nipples took tells that they were not even close.

But in any case, if I had to do it again... I would gladly do it. We love these wheels!

Bad news for me...

At the bike store I took my wheelset to, the mechanic was a "wheel specialist" and basically argued with me about spoke tension, spoke size, and his industry experience. Paid my $$ and took the wheelset to a second store to ensure wheelset was adjusted correctly.

Front wheel was fine but rear wheel was not - spoke tension alternated every spoke 20 and 26 as measured on the Park tool.

Hopefully the rear wheel will be ready this weekend sometime.