Let me guess, these spokes were weaved together? I hate that!

Spokes that aren't weaved together don't touch at the cross.

I know. Isn't that great?

Be interesting to get the specifics of this build.. spokes, rim, tension levels of each side.

I built a 24H triplet last month with a 36H hub... hub I had on hand having spokes that fit onhand. DS was Sapin Lasers with NDS Sapim Strong. Finished tension with TIRE ON was 82-62NDS.. owing to the 1x heads in NDS lacing which is my preference. No reason to lace trips so tight albeit this is the lowest tension level in a rear I've road for many miles (1700). Wheel road nice... no issues per flex etc as I'm easy on wheels at 200 lbs... which is supposedly over a recommended wt for a 24H 16-8. Yet.. under load as above... it talked a little. At disassembly... replacing with a 32H hub... needing the 36 for a 27H 18-9 G3... I took careful tension readings. One triangle showed one spoke doing a good deal more work (higher tension than it's mate). That.. combined with the low tension I assume allowed the wheel to 'give voice' under strain.

I ran a 18-10 trip of my own lacing pattern... NDS 2 radial with 4 1x... at similar low tension of start... felt too soft being even under the 82-62 range. I cranked to the 95-80's range and it went 4000+ quiet... one minor truing in route only.

Latest 'trip' is the G3 27H.. built with an 18H rim drilled out... great 30 buck buy on the slimbay for a new Kinlin 300 with some goofy aftermarket labels that I peeled. This one is around 90's-80 NDS (tire on).. all Sapim Lasers. Quiet firm wheel.

Triplets do not require high DS tensions to get left sides taunt. Lower tensions mean better durability.. no messing with glue or 'prep' in a build.. simplicity.. which the average rider fails mostly to grasp.

Final build tension stats minus tire mounted are meaningless. Run your tension meter around the mounted up wheel.. does go down after inflation... usually.. around 15%.

I finally got back to this project, here are a couple pictures from these wheels. Reminder, this is a 20 year old bike that I acquires about one year ago - lots of unknown. There are some mismatched parts on this bike, including the wheels, the front is Mavic and rear is FiR:



Here is the complete bike, for reference:



A couple weeks ago I had my friend (AKA LBS mechanic) tension the wheel. On the way home, the noise was back. Today, I took the wheel off one of Lisa's bikes and mounted it to the Mondonico. It was a 9-speed cassette versus the Mondonico's 8-speed and wider rim. However, this was close enough to work and see that this noise was not present with this alternate wheel.

Next step, my friend will help me swap wheels/cassettes with this Mondonico and my Felt. The goal is to see that the noise is now on the Felt and not on the Mondonico.

I'd like to ID the exact issue that is causing the noise, but that might not be possible. My best bet is I will buy a new wheel set for the Mondonico before spring.

Well, now I'm confused. Mounted the Mondonico FiR wheel on the Felt and no noise. The wheel was out of true again, after only 15 miles of riding. So this seems like it should be the source of the noise. The only other thing we changed was clean and added grease to the skewer... it possible the the skewer is causing any noises?

Next step, I will put the FiR wheel back on the Mondonico and take a ride to see if the noise reappears. If no, problem solved (oddly). If yes, then mount the FiR wheel on the Felt again to see if it will be noisy.

Is it possible that a dirty/dry QR skewer is making the noise? It doesn't seem possible, but that's the only thing we really changed.

Last night I got all the wheels back on the correct bikes. I took the Mondonico out with the FiR wheel for a fast, aggressive ride last night. 35 miles and the troublesome noise, it didn't appear.... so confused. My ride took me past the LBS, so I stopped in and Kyle (who's been helping me with this bike) pulled the rear wheel and checked it on the truing stand. A couple small adjustments but nothing major.

It appears the FiR wheel has some stress at the spoke nipples, this might be the issue with the spokes loosening.

I plan to purchase a new wheel set over the winter; but I really would love to know that this irksome noise was coming from the loose spokes rubbing or ... could a QR skewer make a rubbing noise???

Thank you for this thread! I had some very strange noises coming from the rear wheel that were driving me bonkers. It was a definite clicking sound when the wheel rolled, it happened twice per revolution and it changed with tire pressure and weight on the panniers. Eventually figured out it was an alignment plug in the rim that I fixed by filling the area with construction foam (thanks to another thread I cannot find again). Immediately after this fix, there was a lighter tinkling sound that seemed to change a bit under load. Found this thread and lued all the spokes at the rim, hub, and where they crossed. The noise is finally gone and I can enjoy a nice quiet bike ride again.

So much great information here

Ditto. I had an Open Pro that had small cracks at some of the spoke holes. Never did fail. I rebuilt it with an Open sport rim to have a little more material.