Bicycle Mechanics - Bike Spokes/Rims

I noticed that my rear wheel is woboling a whole lot and its time to fix it ....I don't know if its the Rim that has to be changed or the spokes....if its the spokes does anyone know how much decent spokes cost and how much aprox to get them installed??

Ask a reputable bike shop or by a mechanically competent fellow cyclist to inspect your wheel. If you are lucky, you may require only spoke tension adjustment ("truing").

The wobble is caused by the spokes losing tension. You have to re-tension them up again using a small spoke key. The trick is to balance the spoke tension, the circularity of the rim and the flatness of the rim edges by small adjustments (1/4 of a turn) of the small spoke nipples which hold the spoke into the rim.

Anyone can learn to do it, but its best to practice on an old wheel, because its quite easy to mess things up at first.
I let my bike shop do it the first few times, but do it myself now.

There is a method, and there are plenty of online guides to the best way how,

how much would new bike spokes cost aprox if I decide to replace them after all

It varies enormously and is based on things like the distance between the spoke eyelets in the rim, the spoke center circle on the hub and the dish of the wheel. Don't be tempted to try and repair it yourself; wheel building is a high art and takes alot of practice :). The best bet would be to take it a good LBS and ask them if you could watch them true/fix it.

i see...
do rims come with spokes or they can be put on seperatly?

Nope, they're all totally seperate entities. You have measure a load of parameters on your rim and your hub and then you look up charts that are available on the web and you calculate the length of spokes you need. All a bit of a black art I'm afraid :).

I looked on my rim and it says

X101 Rims 559x20 made by Alex


My Hub:

Shimano FH-MC18 PARRALAX S8

Tires: Kenda Klaw XT 26x1.95

by this you could tell what spokes i need?

well basically that is what you need, but the easist thing (what I did when I built my wheels) is call your LBS and as them to calculate spoke lenght for you, the majority have a program to find out what lenght you need. and as for price, it varies but I bought 64 DT 14 gauge double butted spokes, with nipples, and it cost about $70 in the end. I'm guessing that is about average for them but then again who knows ;)

99,

If you're not pulling everybody's chain, from your questions I'd say you have a severly limited knowledge of bicycle mechanics. The guys on this forum had a LOT of knowledge and they are telling you to go to your local bike shop. You are way over your head.

Originally posted by ninetynine
I noticed that my rear wheel is woboling a whole lot and its time to fix it ....I don't know if its the Rim that has to be changed or the spokes....

Probably neither. As the others have mentioned, wheels can and do go out of true. If the rim has a permanent kink in it (such as a flat spot) then yes, you would need to replace it; however, this is not very likely. Either way, you should take it to a shop as truing a wheel which is really out of alignment is actually quite difficult - especially for a first-timer. I would suggest learning the technique on an old or discarded wheel or at least on your wheel when it requires minimal truing.

Most good quality spokes should run about $0.50/$0.75 each. Multiply that by the number of spokes and you have the cost; quality rims run about $50./$75. It's much cheaper to have the old wheels trued. Which is probably all you need. Just as everyone else has mentioned.

yes I do have little knowledge thanks for reminding me....so whats your point?

99,

I'm sure no-one here is deliberately being nasty but the point we are all trying to make is

Take your wheel to a good bike shop :).

If you want to pick up some tips, ask if you can watch whilst they do the job.

From the description of your wheel (cheap Alex rim, cheap hub, etc.), you could likely get a similar inexpensive machine-built wheel for about $70 at your local bike shop.
Or, you could just bring the old POS wheel in to be trued.
Tell me; why do you want to replace your spokes? Are they broken, or are you just looking for a hobby?

Originally posted by ninetynine
yes I do have little knowledge thanks for reminding me....so whats your point?

No flame intended.

I'm sure he wants to replace them with black ones so he can go faster. :p

righhhhhhht!

:D

well guys i got to aks you about the bike i bougth today in the afternoon.well the bike is a 14 speed peugeot italia touring rad bike with carbon frame and fork and i cant find the ifo about this brand?I got the bike used in a thrift store for $ 9.99 but since today thursday was half price i got the bike for $ 5.25 after taxes.The bike is in very good shape the paint is in excellent conditions but the only minor problem was that had a flat tire.
Do you guys think i got a road bike in almost excellent conditions for $ 5 bucks? can you tell me where can i find ifo about this bike??

from Atlanta

Well, maybe the reason why you can't find anything about your bike is because your spelling is atrocious. (I sure hope I just spelled that word correctly, BTW.)

Chances are, you don't have a carbon fibre frame, but, if you post a picture, I'm sure many people will give you a better idea of what you have.