We are currently in Tucson, Arizona. My husband was riding the bike I put together for him, https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...rts?highlight=. He hasn't ridden it much because we came from up north. I was always a bit worried about the wheels I put on the bike. They are 26 inch wheels with only 28 spokes. My husband is a big guy so the spoke count is a bit lower than desirable but I had the wheels and they are half decent wheel. Anyway, we were riding and I started hearing a noise from his bike that sounded like a broken spoke. We stopped, I felt the spokes and one was really loose. I went to the nice local bike coop and was helped to true up the wheel (which wasn't bad) and tighten up the spoke.

I took it home, spouse rode it and it immediately came loose again. I went back to the co-op and it turned out that the nipple was bad. The mechanic also said the other spokes were too tight. I loosened them all a half a turn. Replaced the nipple. Trued and tightened up the wheel. The spokes still felt kind of loose to me but the mechanic said it looked good.

Spouse rode the bike at the shop and it felt fine for the short ride.

Came home and we rode further. He says that it shimmies or wobbles at slow speeds. I rode it and I can feel it slightly as well. This is at even less than ten miles per hour. The wheel also is no longer quite as true as when I left the shop. When he rides it looks like the chain is bouncing around a bit, that is the only place I can "see" the shimmy that he strongly feels.

Should I go back and try again? I assume odds are that the shimmying is due to something with the wheel. I checked to be sure I mounted the tire fine and I also took off the wheel and remounted it as well.

We can't see tension via the internet, so you have to trust our own, and the mechanic's judgement on that score. OTOH- though I'm not a tighter is better man, I do raise tensions when I'm using fewer spokes

As for the squirreliness, was it always this way? or is this a new thing? The reason is that wheel rigidity depends on the amount of steel; more or thicker spokes make a more rigid wheel, so a 28s wheel may be a bit flexible for a heavy rider.

Also check for a tire that runs true. Often I'll ride my commuter and it's feel like the wheel is flexing, loose or wobbly. I'll stop to check spokes and all would be OK, later on, I'll find a cut sidewall and a tire with something of an S-curve, which makes the odd handling.

All I can say at this remove is that you have to be a detective and see if you can sort out what's different then before when it rode OK.

The squirreliness is new. I'll look carefully at the tire before I bring it back in again. If we can't sort it out maybe a new used wheel with more spokes?

Other than whatever caused the change, stripped nipple or something else, the wheel seems to have been OK before. If the issue was isolated or a fluke, then finding and fixing the issue should restore it to the prior OK condition. OTOH, it could be that the wheel is inadequate to the demands.

I never condemn a wheel over a single incident, so I'd give this one a second chance, but if it doesn't hold up, then get a 36h wheel going froward.

BTW- congratulations of the good timing of your escape from the tundra.

Well, it took a while to diagnose. We went to the co-op and the first mechanic thought maybe the rear hub was a bit loose. I could feel a very tiny bit of play. I tightened the hub. The problem remained. The second mechanic, who was the one who helped me yesterday, looked at and felt the wheel and said that the spokes were much looser than yesterday. His conclusion was that the spokes needed new nipples. He also felt that my husband should have a 36H wheel and double wall rims. Of course, they didn't have any 8/9 speed wheels so we are off to shop. They must have had 100 seven speed wheels. To bad I didn't build it up as a seven speed.

At my leisure I'll go back and rebuild the old wheel and use it as a spare for me and as a learning experience.

It seems to me that you have a good understanding of the potential problems of the wheels in question. And I think you have received some good advice from others.
I would add that loosening the spokes 1/2 turn is a big change and that I would expect that the tension was lowered too much. Without any additional information I would recommend wheels with at least 32 spokes and 36 would be better, 32 in the front and 36 in the rear should work well.

bang them around in the cargo hold of that zip code sized motor yacht?


on bike tours. In coping with a broken spoke , I use the brake pad as a reference

made a bit easier by having built the wheels in the 1st place..

remember , when reaching across the hub , to the other, far side of the wheel ,
you turn the opposite way when turning a spoke nip, than if you were turning it on the near side.

+1. It happened to me on last Sunday ride, the rear end started to wobble. The tire was deformed but not cut, when I replaced it I found cuts inside, probably due to a brick-like rock I couldn't avoid some months ago.

I had the same symptom. My bike would wobble at lower speeds and it turned out to be lots of loose spokes. I would retighten the wheel and use a tensionometer to check. Maybe the coop has one to use. Even if your husband is over the weight limit of the wheel, this should be a long-term problem, not an immediate one.

I re-tightened and trued mine about 6 months ago and haven't had any problems since, and I DIDN'T use a tensionometer.

Hey, the cargo hold worked great. Three bikes in the hold, separated by rugs. The carbon roadie under the bed. And the last bike stashed in the hall.

I am still getting a feel for how a wheel "moves" when turning a spoke.


The coop didn't have a tension meter, but clearly the wheel wouldn't hold its tension. Monday night I'm going back to the co-op and will rebuild the wheel. I can use the wheel on my mountain bike. Or, if you folks think it is worth trying, I could tigten it up again and try it on my bike as I am a relative lightweight.
++

1 spoke getting lose and w/o getting the wheel that bad means that the rim has a problem right in that spot, IMO what the coop kid tried to do by releasing tension was to get at least half to 1 turn more of tension in the bad spoke so doesnt get lose, the problem is that the hole wheel gets lose, with a light person is not a problem, with a heavy person it is a problem and clearly that wheel in question has some spoke preparation problems as well.

To me clearly there is a problem in the rim, solution? true to wheel as tight as possible (not saying go to the extremes) and use thread locker in all the nipples, specially in the one that get lose all the time and done with the problem. Second thing to do is to get a new wheel or get a new rim. Cheaper to use thread locker because you dont want that spoke to get lose no more.


Good luck.

ps: you dont need a tension meter, you need somebody that knows what he/she is doing.

It is indeed possible that the rim has been physically bent at some time. If spokes are loose (not lose) in one area or one side but the wheel is relatively true and round, then the rim is the problem. Spokes only pull, so if the rim is bent to one side one has to overtension the other side and undertension the same side. That sets up a dynamic that makes loosening easier. The proper solution is for the rim to be carefully bent in the other direction after loosening all the spokes in that area, or for the rim/wheel to be replaced. A properly built wheel should not require threadlocker - that is treating the symptom rather than the cause.

I think the young man at the co-op was pretty competent. He was the go-to guy for the other mechanics. Short of replacing the nipples he said I could try linseed oil on the nipples and tighten it up or even locktight. However, if my spouse was going to use the wheel he didn't think that would be sufficient. Maybe if I am the one who uses the wheel that will work? Or is worth a try?

The one spoke that slipped got a new nipple and of course that one held its tension.

Almost all the spokes loosened up. It wasn't concentrated to one part of the wheel. The wheel has held fairly true through this whole process.

So, how does one know if the rim is just not a good rim? I bought it used and it was true when I bought it and the spokes were pretty tight. Maybe too tight, according to the co-op mechanic. I rode the wheel for a while on one of my bikes with no issues. The problems started when my spouse started riding the wheel.

Goldfinch is hard to know sometimes by the internet you know, IMO the coop kid did the right thing but it sometimes work, sometimes it doesn't. It depends a lot of the rim, spokes, lacing and how good the wheelbuilder is you know. No idea what wheel you have in there either so hard to know whats going on.

CNY indicates that threadlocker is not the solution and I agree but since it works with stubborn losing all the time spokes then why not using it I do agree with him in his post but my suggestion about "gluing" the nipples was just to that thing fixed quick, actually the coop kid will add linseed oil that is basically the same thing than adding threadlocker the oil will dry and lock the nipples In my country some guys where using water to get the nipples to rust tiny bit.

As for the rim question, well there is no way to know even with brand new rims if they come with a wooble, you use the spokes tension to get the rim right but sometimes rims are so f... up that you get sections as cny is describing, lose and one side and super tight at the opposite side. Obviously you get a loooot more chances to get a busted rim when the rim is used or when the wheel is used.

I fix the wheels for a friend that flip bikes and sometimes and I have seen rims so bad that you have to hammer them to get the rim in the right direction so the spokes get at least close to the right tension in the lose areas, by the way is not uncommon to do that even with new rims, specially when using vintage NOS rims, modern rims are machined and that helps a lot to the rims roundness (but sometimes you get lucky to get the ugly duck too). Since you got a used wheel who knows what's the story behind it. Since I do wheels (not professionally as many builders in the forum) pretty much I do not believe the wheel is right unless I retouch them myself spoke by spoke, for the record even with new wheels is not the same to get a super expensive one than a wheel coming from a walmart bike even if its new.

Tension, this is a really delicate subject because you can snap a spoke because of too much tension or because of lack of it. you have to add too the fact that some people likes the tension in the spokes really high and other guys likes them right in the spot with the specs, since I dont use a tension meter i do this by feel using "the force" ... .

Learning to build wheels is always a good skill you know, maybe you can use this wheel to learn, it is a process but is not hard to learn quick, you will save some cash aswell because LBS now a days dont waste time with wheels, cheaper get news ones.

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone. I've learned a lot from the experience with this wheel and from the comments in this thread. I will use this wheel to learn about wheels.

In my opinion, it's better to learn about building wheels using new, perfection condition materials. This way, your learning isn't affected by unknown variables. If an error is present, you know it's user error, not equipment error. This forces your skills to raise to the level of the equipment. Later, when your technique advances, you are able to track down and deal with material faults.