jowilson

I ordered a new rear wheel on Thursday and it should be here later this week. I'm curious what to check for on a new wheel. Obviously, check the trueness of it and take a peek inside the hub. But what else should be checked before riding on it? The wheel is a 26"x1.5", double walled, 14g ss spokes, 36h, free hub. More info will be provided if needed.

TIA,

Josh

Bill Kapaun

Spoke tension.
Good chance the hub has minimal grease and the bearings are too tight.
If it's a cheap wheel, probably longer spokes.

cxwrench

If you're asking this question are you capable of 'taking a peek' inside the hub? Do you know whether it's loose-ball or cartridge bearing? Are you experienced w/ overhauling hubs? I'd only open it up if it sounds rough and/or you know what you're doing. There are online instructions online for various hubs if needed.

ryker

If it looks new, don't do much. Inspect the wheels visually. Check the trueness of the wheel. If you have a spoke tensiometer, use that to check tension. Otherwise do a casual check to make sure no spokes are loose. Check the bearing preload is correctly adjusted. Ride.

FBinNY 

It's a sad state of affairs when someone orders something new, then feels it needs a total inspect/rework.

If you feel you need to check the hub, and the alignment and spoke tension, you already made the first mistake by ordering from someone you don't trust to deliver a good product.

KevinF

I bought a new set of wheels earlier this season... It never occurred to me to do anything other than put tires on and put the new wheels on the bike and go ride.

contango 

If you don't have a spoke tensiometer pluck the spokes and they should sound about the same. Ideally they should sound exactly the same but realistically speaking there will be minor differences.

If it's a rear wheel or a front wheel with disc brakes the spokes on one side will sound different to the spokes on the other side, but all the spokes on the same side should sound much the same. Don't forget to take spoke reflectors off or you'll just get a dull thud.

Bill Kapaun

I bought a cheap set for a CL flipper.
I simply couldn't buy the parts for what the wheels cost.
Since I DO build wheels and have a tension meter, I checked the tensions.
On each flange, 1 spoke would be where it should be and the next spoke was about 1/2 as much. (kgf)
Obviously a machine trued wheel.
On one of them, the spokes were about 2 mm shorter than then the screw driver slot of the nipple. About 1 mm on the other. Inexcusable!
Bearings were too tight and under lubed. It looked like they used a sticky spray lube, it was so thin.

I'm sure many people would just mount them and ride. For awhile.

jowilson

It is probably loose ball. Definitely not cartridge though. I know how to service a hub and what I mean by peek inside the hub is look to see if there is adequate grease and the cones are adjusted right. I have the cone wrenches and grease to regrease if needed.

cxwrench

As Bill posted you'll most likely need to add some grease and it probably won't be adjusted 'just right'. It would be a good idea to check it out when new, then you'll know. Just remember, loose ball hubs always come apart from the non-drive side.

Al1943

Spoke tension. Wheels on new bikes, even good bikes, often have insufficient and uneven spoke tension.

IthaDan 

Pluck the spokes. Listen.

Twist the axle. Feel.

Then mount tires and ride.

jowilson

^^^You make it sound much simpler^^^

rgpg_99

So, do you mean you remove the cone and nut from the non-drive side, and pull the axle from the drive side, or the other way around?

cxwrench

You got it, remove the non-drive side lock nut/cone and pull the axle out of the drive side.

rgpg_99

I see. That's what I've done in the past, but just because the lock nut/cone on the drive side were too tight, and they came off easier on the non-drive side, or because the freewheel was stuck, so that I couldn't access the cone on the drive side properly.

Any particular reason for that practice (getting the lock nut/cone from the non-drive side)?

IthaDan 

It's about access more than anything. Think of a loose ball bb- the fixed cup is the one under all the chainrings and fiddly bits, and the adjustable cup is in the side where you can take a pretty good crack at it without taking the crankarm off.

Same story with hubs. The locknut/cone assembly is often under the freewheel/freehub where both sets of wrench flats are inaccessible, and often the drive side axle length is far more critical. Wen I build up a hub, I set the drive side length (hollow axles, I set the axle protrusion past the locknut) lock the cone to the locknut, then load the hub. If things go together as planned, t's far easier to have the slop on the NDS- also because if take as little as possible off the drive side, you need might be able to have more length on the NDS side and if you need to redish, the new dishing direction is the one with better triangulation.

jowilson

Sorry to bump and old thread but the wheel came in Wednesday. First thing I did was feel the axle- it was definitely too tight so I opened it, and there was very little grease so I put a little in on both sides, and tightened the cone correctly. Dish was fine but the lateral true was a tad off so I corrected that no problem. Rode it to and from school this morning and everything is fine. Thanks for the help all!!!

Bill Kapaun

So how was spoke length & tension?
You were batting 1.000 so far!

Kimmo 

I'd consider it a mistake to expect a good product (in terms of wheel build) unless I was paying some serious bucks.

The way I see it, with cheap wheels, you're basically just paying for the parts, thrown together. IMO it's a surprise if you don't need to fix preload, not to mention even up and/or tighten spoke tension.

The definition of cheap I'm talking here would pretty much encompass anything with straight-gauge spokes.

mrrabbit 

Assuming this is a basic machine built wheel that needs finishing work...

1. Give all parallel spokes a nice solid squeeze for two rotations. (Initial Stress Relief)
2. Drop of light weight oil in the gap between nipples and rim holes.
3. Spin wheel for a minute.
4. True, Tension and Dish
5. Repeat #1
6. True, Tension and Dish.
7. Repeat #1 again...if wheel stays true, dished AND at the tension you want after this stress relief cycle - DONE.

Only thing left at this point is to adjust the hub...

This turns an unfinished machine built wheel with 50/50 chance into a decent wheel that has a good shot at lasting 3+ years before some kind of failure occurs...

=8-)

jowilson

Spoke tension was fine as well even after a tiny bit of truing.