Front wheel making a popping sound

Eddyracer

1 µW
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
3
Hello again. I Just bought this ecotric 36v mountain bike. And It seems to be one thing after another. I fixed my speed limiter problem. Now I have a loud popping sound coming from the front wheel.. sounds like a spoke about to pop out it’s so loud. The bike is brand new. Not sure what to think now, spokes seem tight to the touch anyway I tugged on them. Wheel is true. Anyone had this issue? I’m between the spokes, bearings, or maybe brakes? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I can’t believe how bad it sounds as it’s barely been used. Thanks.
 
Do you have a front motor? it's likely that the wheel was not built properly. Perhaps a bike shop could give you some insight.

Some pictures would be nice as well.

There are a lot of companies slopping together bikes cheaply, or even just reselling really low quality Chinese assembled bikes. Sounds like you ended up with one of these units, hm?

This is why we on the forum typically build our own bikes. This bike is fixable, but you have to start out by reverse engineering what's wrong with it, which is a harder way to learn than building something from the ground up. However, we can probably help you fix the issues present on this bike with more information.
 
Bearings or spokes can sound the same, but will act different. if it's just one pop, it's easy enough to sort out where it's coming from.

Grab your front wheel at the top, just in front of the fork. Now try to move it side to side, as if you were going to make the side of the tire touch the inside of the fork. if you can wiggle it freely, or you hear a clicking from the axle, it's likely a bearing issue. If not, move on to the next step.

Take your bike for a walk. If after 100 feet or so, you hear the same popping noise but you don't have any weight on the bike, it's also probably a bearing issue. If you don't, try riding the bike. If the popping returns, it's likely a spoke issue.
 
That's what I found as well. If it takes my weight on the bike to make the noise, it's most likely a spoke.

And the fact it's a new bike, unfortunately, doesn't make it any less likely to have a loose spoke.
 
Turn all the spokes just 1/4 turn tighter, and if the noise changes any, it is in the spokes.
 
I'm not sure what the "popping sound" sounds like so this could be off base. On my fat bike bike I had a (crunching?) sound that I couldn't get rid of and eventually determined that the tire was not 100% properly seated in the rim - even though it looked fine.

There are a number of posts on the web about how to remedy this. For me, I completely deflated the tire, sprayed Windex all around both sides on the rim and the tire bead, over-inflated the tire, and then let air out to the proper pressure.

As I say, may not be your issue at all.
 
Back
Top