I'm attempting to learn how to repair everything that happens to my bike. I can't stand a simple break putting me out of commission for days at a time, having to leave the bike at the LBS and feeling stupid for not knowing how to repair what's broken.
So, today, I took a 25 mile ride and everything went fine. However, when I got home, I noticed my back tire rubbing the brake pad and a spoke hanging out. It was still in the hub and not broken. The thread was still in place up top, and the nipple just came loose and was stuck between the rim and the rim tape. So, I took it all apart and fixed it with a new nipple on the existing spoke. I put it all back together, and put the wheel back on the bike. I tightened down the barrel nut on the rear brake and used that to try to true the wheel, using the brake pads. It seems pretty straight. However, now when I get on the bike, I keep hearing a pinging sound coming from the spokes. Is this normal for a few mi utes after tightening and truing a wheel, or are they possibly overtightened? I don't want to cause more damage and I'm teying to fix this tonight. The LBS is closed until Monday and I wanted to take a 30 mile ride tomorrow morning.

No you have wound up the spokes. The pinging comes from them unwinding when your weight detensions the spoke slightly. So a wound up spoke can't be regarded as stable for truing the wheel. If you check the wheel now, you will see it is way out of true. You need to work on your tightening technique, overshooting your intended nipple turn and then backing off to get the nipple where you want it without the spoke winding up. Also you can put pieces of scotch tape on the spokes as "flags" to show you when the spoke is twisted. And compressing the wheel against the floor all the way around the circumference a few times during the truing will allow the twisted spokes to release while you are still working on the wheel instead of during your ride. Finally good lubrication of the nipple is a big help too.

Pinging is a sign that when you adjusted the spoke tension the spokes twisted. The pinging is the spokes unwinding and likely throwing off the tension again. The fact that you didn't notice that happening isn't a great sign for a successful wheel repair but your enthusiasm to learn means you should be able to quickly gain the skills necessary to start fixing wheels.

I started learning here: Wheelbuilding

I then supplemented that knowledge with lots of practice and some more reading. I eventually got to the point where I feel comfortable building fairly difficult wheels (1.5mm spokes, lightweight rims, low spoke count). I've screwed up a few wheels along the way and learned some things the hard way. I could bore you with all that but just learning to a fix a single spoke doesn't really require all that much wheel building knowledge.

It us just as important to have the spoke tensions balanced as to have the wheel true. If you don't know how to do this, by all means get Jobst Brandt's book on wheel building. You won't be sorry.

You're good OP. There's nothing wrong.

Thank you for all the replies. So, should I loosen all spokes and start over, or just do a few at a time. How do I un-screw up what I've done? Or, do I skip tomorrow's ride and just take it to the bike shop on Monday?

That depends. Would you rather take the time to learn on your own or get back on your bike sooner? Keep in mind that if your LBS is like mine back when I didn't know much about fixing a bike, they won't make the wheel any better than you have. Mine deemed a rear wheel of mine unfixable way back when. Luckily I kept it because after I learned a few things about wheel building, I went back and fixed it easily (the aluminum nipples just needed lubricating before attempting to true and tension the wheel).

Now that the pinging has presumably stopped, what you really need to do is to verify that all spokes have even tension and that the wheel is true after adjusting the tension. The spoke that came loose did so because it was severely under-tensioned from the factory and so it's quite likely that other spokes are, too. I bought a simple Park Tool tension gauge and it has served me well for my wheel building endeavors. A tension gauge will quickly allow you to see the tension on the spoke though you can also pluck the spokes and listen for a specific note (I'm a mechanical not musical guy so I never even bothered trying this). Of course, you can also roughly gauge tension simply by squeezing adjacent spokes and feeling for deflection. Squeezing really tightly will also remove any additional spoke wind-up.

This last method would be good enough to get by for a while allowing you to pick up some tools and do some reading before truly diving into your wheel to set the tension straight. When you do go full bore into it, you may want to save yourself some aggravation and completely loosen all the spokes to start. You may also want to have a spare wheel on hand in case you run into some issues :-)

First off there is no reason you can't ride the bike as is. If the wheels are true enough to clear the brake pads, you are good to go. If there is a slight rub, open up the brakes just a tad and see it that works. Don't go too far or you will lose braking efficacy.

joejack951's advice is mostly sound, but not the part about squeezing the spokes relieving spoke windup. Squeezing the spokes together does have a purpose, relieving stress in the spokes, but it doesn't help with windup. Only compressing the rim will do that.

I wouldn't loosen all the spokes. You didn't likely screw things up enough to need that.

Try the scotch tape flag method on the spokes you are going to work on. Put the pieces of tape all either parallel or perpendicular to the line of the spokes. Then when you twist a nipple, you can see if the tape turns. Try to learn to over-turn the nipple and then back it off to where you really want it. That will eliminate most windup before it happens. If you have a good musical ear, for this purpose you can try plucking the spokes and listening for an equivalent tone all the way around each side of the wheel. Keep in mind that the dish in the rear wheel will make the tone different on the two sides as the tensions are different. The keep going back and forth, truing and testing for tension equivalence, getting them both balanced.

To test for proper wheel dish you can reverse the wheel in the dropouts. If the rim is the same distance from each pad when it is facing either way, then the wheel is dished properly and the rim is centered over the hub. If the rim is closer to one side of the hub than the other (improperly dished), you will have to tighten or loosen all the spokes on one side to move it over. Then tension and true as before.

But I (not everyone, but I do) recommend you get a decent (note the word decent, not extravagant, not cut rate) truing stand. You will use it for the rest of your life. A tension meter would come later if you actually want to build wheels. Not exactly a necessity, but certainly a convenience.

Good luck.

Okay, I might have fixed it....sort of. I tinkered and when the wheel scrubbed the left side brake pad, I either loosened the left spoke nearest or tightened the right spoke nearest. When the right side scrubbed, I did the opposite. After about 30 minutes, It's nearly completely straight. No pinging when I took it down the street. Am I safe to ride tomorrow, or could something catestrophic happen?

Sorry for the stupid questions. I'm trying to learn and just don't want to screw my new bike up in the process. I almost think I should get a clunker bike to practice on.

No catastrophes are likely, but you may have the tensions unbalanced. You may have tightened one side when you needed to loosen the other. But all that in good time. Ride tomorrow. When you feel like it, check out the tensions by sound and adjust as needed.

When checking tensions, just pluck with my fingers?

That's a good plan, listening for any spokes that are obviously different. Remember that spokes on the drive side will be higher pitch than the non-drive side, that's normal for most wheels. If you're plucking spokes its best to pluck all the drive side first, then the non-drive side (or vice versa) that way you don't get thrown off.

Okay, I'm extremely stubborn. I had it almost entirely straight and decided to start over and see if I could do it again, but better. I did loosen all the spokes, tightened each about 1/2 turn each until they started to get tight. Then, I worked my way around the wheel and adjusted as necessary. I don't know if it's any better than before, but it's pretty straight. There is a very slight hop, as if it's not completely round, but I couldn't feel it when I rode it down the road just now. I'll still run it by the bike shop on Monday, but it feels safe to ride. Thank you for all of your help. I hope nothing goes wrong tomorrow.

Yes, or fingernail.

I'm afraid you did mess the wheel up if it is now not radially true. Radial truing is an important first phase of the building process. You can't readily go back and fix it at the end. Your problem is more one of having a crude truing fixture than anything else. And you need to understand that at the end of the process you may be turning the nipples only 1/8 turn or less...very small adjustments. Now the problem is that LBSs are often very bad at wheel building compared to a professional wheel builder. Unless you can get the tools you require and devote yourself to learning to do it right very quickly, you are kind of screwed here. Get the book I recommended, get a decent truing stand, and start from scratch. Sure you can ride the wheel, but you are likely fatiguing the spokes that are misadjusted and setting the wheel up for spoke breakage down the road. It could be weeks, months, or years, but that is what happens when spoke tension is not proper and balanced.

Grrr.....thanks. So, is it a worthwhile endeavor to loosen everything again and start over, or is the roundness only corrected with a truing stand? I learned a lot about the adjustments just playing with it for a few hours yesterday. I have a few really good bike mechanics in town that should be able to do the job. I just hate being without my bike for 4-5 days. I started riding for stress management, and so far I'm down 20 pounds since late July. I honestly just don't want to take a break and be without my bike for almost a week.

Hops are correctable on an otherwise finished wheel, but it does take some skill. Vertical hops require significant spoke adjustments which will feel a bit scary the first time.

A decent vertical hop may take three or more full nipple turns to correct. To do this you need to work in groups of spokes on opposite sides of the hub. A high spot on the rim means you need to tighten the spokes near the hop and loosen the spokes on the opposite side of the hub to pull the rim even without affecting spoke tension or trueness. It may be easier to think in terms of shifting the hub around. A hop in the wheel means you need to move the hub closer to that spot on the rim, hence why you need to loosen spokes opposite the hop to correct it.

I've had the best luck working on a group of four spokes near the hop (32 spoke wheels, lower spoke count wheels may mean only using two spokes) and another group of four directly across from those near the hop (mark the spokes you are working on). The middle two get the most turns and outer two get lesser turns, spreading the 'love' a bit.

As pointed out above, squeezing spokes is better for stress relief than wind-up undoing. It can cause some pinging but compressing the rim or pushing the hub laterally is far more efficient.

Bored while gluing tubulars and taking a break. Checking ad campaigns on other forums and decided to pop back in here and see if there was anything interesting. Skimmed a lot of this but here's my $0.02.

A large number (most) of all inexpensive pre-built wheels used on bikes from OEM's have never been properly stress relieved or tensioned correctly. They were machine built and put on the bike.

Riding them over a period of time can cause non-drive side spokes to loosen/de-tension. you found one that happened to. Just put the nipple back on, take it up to the tension that all of the others on that side seem to be around by plucking it. Stress relieve the wheel (read about it elsewhere), pluck it - get them equal again and then true it.

Do NOT loosen all of the spokes and start over from scratch. For a novice this is a surefire way of assuring you will end up at a shop. FYI - most shops are horrible with wheels. They truly don't know what they're doing but feel like they do.

In general the more you futz with it the worse off you will be. Put the spoke wrench down and walk away. The guy who owned the shop I bought out used to always say, "I loved selling spoke wrenches. I got the money off the sale of the wrench and I was always going to end up with a wheel tension and true job when they came back after they messed their wheel up."

If you stress relieve it correctly you will hear that pinging come out of the wheel. If you're still hearing it when you ride it then hop off and you'll find the wheel is untrue again. Funny how that happens eh? Keep tensioning and truing until the wheel stands true after stress relieving. If it won't stand true and the rim isn't bent then you don't have the right tension balance. Period.