New RadCity with loose spokes?

[AHicks]

20 miles or so into familiarizing myself with a new bike, and I hear something rubbing/clicking in back while coasting. Checking all the usual suspects, I find no good reason, and it won't make the noise without my fat butt on it.

I had read about others having some issues with loose spokes, so I went ahead and tightened every spoke on the rear wheel 90 degree from where they were at, hoping to maintain wheel alignment, which worked out. Test drove and my noise was gone.

So my question is, is there a method that's commonly used for this issue that won't cause me to get into an alignment issue? When tightening the way I did, I did notice that some spoke were much looser than others. Is that a concern, or best not addressed during this process?

Note that I do all of my own work. If I get into something that's going to require that I re-true this rim, I'll be required to teach myself how to do that. Obviously would much prefer to avoid having to do that.

If anyone has a link to something that might be helpful, I'd be grateful if they would post it.

Thanks so much!

 

[2old]

utube has tutorials on wheel building, truing, tension etc (I'm self-taught since they weren't available when I built my first wheels); Wheel tension will differ on the drive and non-drive sides of a rear wheel (unless the wheel is symmetrical which is rare), but the spokes on each side should have the same tension (I use a Park Spoke Tension Meter, but plenty of individuals have less quantitative methods that work just as well IMO). Also, if Chalo chimes in he'll tell you of the inherent problems with 12 ga spokes.

 

[amberwolf]

I'd recommend looking up some of the threads about wheel building and lacing, which will have applicable info to tensioning and truing up an already-built wheel. Some are in these lists
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=wheel*+lac*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=wheel*+build*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=wheel*+tension*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

and there's others under other terms. Not everything in each list is applicable, but you can probably tell by thread title which are good starts.



Sheldon Brown's site has good info about that, too. (or pretty much anything bicycle-service-related).



And just to save Chalo the trouble, if the wheel was built with 12g spokes but not using a rim made for that thickness, then it's possible for this to be a chronic problem for the wheel. (it doesn't always happen, but often enough to take note of).

Too-thick spokes for the rim mean that tensioning them sufficiently (so they stay preloaded and don't loosen) deforms or damages the rim at the nipple holes, which loosens the nipples, requiring more tension, which damages the rim more, loosening the nipples.... And so on.

Correct thickness spokes for the rim (14-15g for most bicycle rims; 13g is already pretty thick, and 12g is too thick for lots of them) will tension correctly without damaging the rim.

Rims do exist that are made for thick spokes, but in my expereince they aren't usually used on common hubmotor wheels. :/ They usually use typical cheap (or even cheaper) bicycle rims which are made for much thinner spokes.

 

[AHicks]

Spokes are shown in the Rad specs to be 12ga stainless. The rims are double wall, and I would hope that due to the number of RAD bikes sold, they would be using the proper rims. Not knowing any more about than I do though, I'm not real sure on how I could tell to know for sure?

Will check out the links (thank you!) to see if I can pick up anything that makes sense to me regarding my issue.

 

[2old]

Just for information, the 12 ga spokes on my YESCOM inexpensive rear hub have only needed to be tweaked twice in three years and the wheel seems fine. Apparently they were compatible with the cheap rim.

 

[Chalo]

If you only lightly load the wheel, any spokes will do-- with the extreme example of not riding the bike at all, when even slack spokes and an out-of-true wheel are fit for purpose. But as you demand more of the wheel, thin spokes are reliable under much heavier use than thick spokes.

At the same tension, 12ga spokes cut the wheel's dependable capacity by 45% compared to 14ga spokes, and by 56% compared to 15ga spokes.

 

[MadRhino]

Most of new wheels need to ride some time before final tensioning/trueing. The nipples and spoke heads need to seat properly, and that requires either pre-tensioning/pre-loading, or some time riding the wheel. Some wheel builders are very good at pre-loading their wheels, and their job is mostly finished when they deliver the wheel. Yet they usually tell their clients to come back in a month for free finishing their wheel. On the other side, motor wheels are mostly machine laced in China, so finishing the wheel is a must after it’s been riding some time. If the finishing is done perfectly true and tight, then the wheel will be reliable. Yet, any wheel does require periodic maintenance, according to usage intensity, to keep it true and tight. A neglected wheel does degrade exponentially after it’s not true and tight anymore.

 

[AHicks]

While I believe what you say may be true, I've had several bicycles in my years, and this is my 3rd e-bike (2 previous were LeafBike conversions I did myself). I wrote as this is the first time I've ever found the need to address an issue regarding spokes on any of them. I thought the situation unique, possibly related to Rad bikes only, but maybe not?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[Chalo]

I service and rebuild a wide assortment of hub motor wheels at the shop where I work. Almost all of them come with 12ga spokes as supplied by the seller. Almost all of them have flange spacing of 40mm or less. Most of them used on bicycles have issues with spoke loosening. All of them used on pedicabs unscrew themselves until they're completely slack unless they are tightened up frequently.