direction to Tighten spokes
 

Hey, I was just looking at my wheel since it's making the spoke creaking sound when I lean to one side and I am having trouble determining which way to turn the spoke to tighten them. If I have my bike sitting normally, with the tires on the ground, would I turn the spokes closest to the ground clockwise or counterclockwise to tighten them?

counter clockwise.

Do it both ways and see which way tightens and loosens, then right it down for the next time. I always keep a peice of paper with whatever I did to my bike, so I can refer back to it later.

Righty tighty, lefty loosie

Think of the nipple as a nut and the spoke as a really long bolt. So looking down toward the ground, turn it counter clockwise like big knob said.

Clockwise on almost all wheels. It is clockwise whether you are tightening the spokes on the bottom or the top. You just have to think about which direction is clockwise.

Normally, I turn the bike upside down and check rim runout while tightening the spokes. The spokes will more than likely creak and pop on the first ride after adjusting them.

If you are looking at the nipple form the outside of the rim, it's righty tighty, lefty loosey.

The OP sounds like he wants to do it with the tires on therefore with a spoke wrench, you have the turn the nipples counterclockwise to tighten. If you want to do it with the tire off with the other side of the nipple underneath the rim tape (trying to use layman's terms here), you turn it clockwise to tighten. Either way, you're turning the nipple in the same direction.

when you are tensioning a wheel using the musical pitch method, how do you know what octave the pitch is in?

i am using the pitch recommended on this website:

http://www.bikexprt.com/bicycle/tension.htm

for my spokes, i need a "G". but don't know which "G" to tune the spokes to. all i know is the spokes are really loose and i can flex them really easily. should i just tension them until i hit the next G, then if they still "feel" loose, tighen the next octave higher?

If the spokes are already somewhat tight, I doubt that you would be able to "hit " the next octave without strippping the threads. Most threads are rolled on to the spokes and would probably not be strong enough to traverse through, to the next octave.
But that is an interesting question.