Bicycle Mechanics - Help with rim noise

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jwhitaker
08-25-03, 09:11 AM
I have wheel noise from two bikes. The first bike makes a little click whether I peddle or not. It is not loud and is bearable. I just want to make sure it is still safe to ride it. The brakes nor anything else is rubbing the rear tire(where the noise is coming from). The wheel is not perfectly true. I can feel a slight bump when I ride.


The other bike makes a terrible loose clicking noise in the rear tire also. Upon further inspection, several of the spokes seem very loose. Would this cause the noise?

Thanks, I am pretty new to this.

prestonjb
08-25-03, 07:49 PM
Typically the noise you are speaking of is loose spokes. The second wheel is to the point that it is obvious. The first wheel is just getting to that point.

The click comes from one of two locations. One is where the spokes cross each other.

The other place where a click comes from is when the loose spoke is at the bottom of the wheel as it turns then the head of the spoke where it goes into the wheel will momentarily move away (inside the wheel) and pop back as the wheel rotates and the rim elongates again.

The click at the crossing is similar it is where one spoke moves across the other in a sawing motion but there is a slight binding of the crossed spokes until the loose one pops over the other one and that makes the click sound.

Definatly take the wheels to a shop and have the spokes tightened and the wheels trued.