Well, this is my first foray into the mechanics forum, and I'm hoping I can phrase my question properly.....

I've had my current bike for a little over four years, and in all of that time, I haven't had to deal with replacing any inner tubes.....until today. Yesterday, I noticed that my front tire was a little low on air, so I got out my pump and was going to "top it off," but while connecting the hose to the Presta valve stem, I somehow broke the little piece that I unscrewed in order to inflate the tire. Okay, no biggie, I thought; I have a spare so I'll just swap out the old for the new. Well, something came up and I wasn't able to get around to replacing the tube until this morning. I got the old one out and the new one in, but when I began inflating the tire is when I ran into "trouble," thus my question.....

Is it customary, when inflating a 700x28 road bike tire (all my previous bikes had been cheap, big box store "mountain" bikes), from no air to full air, for it to sound like the spokes are popping (for lack of a better term)? That's really the best way I can describe it. It did that three times while pumping up the tire. All the spokes look okay and seem to have the proper tension. I even did a short "test ride" around the block, and everything appears to be okay.

I just don't want to be miles from home and have something go haywire with my front wheel. Help me set my mind at ease. Thanks in advance.