All spokes loose
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Location: Washington County, Vermont, USA
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Bikes: 1966 Dawes Double Blue, 1976 Raleigh Gran Sport, 1975 Raleigh Sprite 27, 1980 Univega Viva Sport, 1971 Gitane Tour de France, 1984 Lotus Classique, 1976 Motobecane Grand Record
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All spokes loose
This isn't really a c & v question, but here goes: This morning, I was helping a friend clean and lube his maybe 3 year old touring bike--generic aluminum frame, Shimano Tiagra components, etc. He's put quite a few miles on it with no major problems. When cleaning the spokes on the front wheel (which I do because it forces you to handle and look at them individually, and give you a chance to discover spoke nipples tearing through the rim, etc.) I noticed that the whole front wheel had very little spoke tension--just a little more than you get when you first snug up a wheel after lacing it. The odd thing is that the rim is perfectly true and there are no other evident problems.
What gives? Obviously, all 36 spokes didn't work loose in perfect unison. All I can think of is that the wheel was somehow incompletely tensioned when it was manufactured. Has anyone else seen this? I told him to take it back to the shop where he got it and have them deal with it, though after 3 years they may not want to. If they won't do it, I can throw it on my jig and do it for him, unless there's some other potential problem I'm not seeing.
What gives? Obviously, all 36 spokes didn't work loose in perfect unison. All I can think of is that the wheel was somehow incompletely tensioned when it was manufactured. Has anyone else seen this? I told him to take it back to the shop where he got it and have them deal with it, though after 3 years they may not want to. If they won't do it, I can throw it on my jig and do it for him, unless there's some other potential problem I'm not seeing.
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www.redclovercomponents.com
"Progress might have been all right once, but it has gone on too long."
--Ogden Nash