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Spokes loosening, and wheel problems

Old 05-03-05, 01:49 PM
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Wheel: Mavic 221 on Deore LX hub, 15ga (I think) spokes. 32H. Bought new last year. Machine built.

Incident: Derailer into spokes, broke derailer, bent spokes.

Problem: Ever since I tightened the spokes that got bent on the drive side, spokes on the non-drive side refuse to stay tight. They keep loosening on me. Subsequently the wheel keeps going out of true. Every time I tighten the loose spokes, and ride 5 or so miles, they loosen up again. It makes me sick, it was such a nice wheel until the derailer went into it and bent those spokes up. LBS where I bought it says to buy green loctite and put that on the spoke threads. That doesn't sound right to me, they shouldn't be loosening like that I don't think. So should I just have this wheel rebuilt or is it salvagable? Thanks for your time.
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Old 05-03-05, 02:01 PM
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you should not need loctite. The spokes are undertensioned, loose spokes means the nipples can back out. Its just like a bolt and 2 nuts. If you have them and tighten them against eachother just barely, they will eventaully loosen. Since there is a fairly large dish on a rear wheel the non drive side naturally has much less spoke tension. So you need to tighten the spokes on the driveside as well to make up for it
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Old 05-03-05, 03:55 PM
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You should also replace the spokes that were bent.
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Old 05-04-05, 05:48 AM
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As always, PhantomCow and I are on the same page. That said, I'd rebuild this wheel. Get ride of those damaged spokes and be done with it.
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Old 05-04-05, 06:01 AM
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Once spokes are bent, the need to be replaced or the wheel needs to be rebuilt.
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Old 05-04-05, 08:52 AM
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Thanks for all the great responses. I understand more about tension now, thanks PhantomCow2. I'll work on the wheel tonight and get things a little more even. Thanks too everyone else for the responses about rebuilding the wheel. For now I can't afford to have it rebuilt, but I will instead have it rebuilt when I have the money. For now I have to make do with getting the tension even.

What is a good price for rebuilding a wheel like this?
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Old 05-05-05, 02:01 PM
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Well I just got done with the wheel. I took PhantomCow's advice and checked the drive side spokes. Yep, some were loose. So, I tensioned them, doing the ping test to get the tension even with the spokes around them. Once I checked tension on all the spokes on the drive side, I did the same for the non-drive side. Found a couple of completely loose spokes, and some that were just down on the tension so I brought them up. Then I trued the wheel, had only 1/2 and 1/4 turn adjustments to get a bit of a wobble out. When I have a truing stand available I'm going to check it for roundness too. I found that I also have a bent axle so I need a new one. May as well rebuild the hub at that point I guess. I'll get it all figured out. I'll post back once I get a couple of commutes on the wheel and check the tensions again.

Thanks for all the informative help.
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