Noisy spokes

S

Shockwave

10 mW
Joined
Dec 27, 2024
Messages
25
Location
South Florida U.S.A.
Hey guys, today I put another 10 miles on my new build, 15 miles total now.
Today I noticed a little squeaky sound, every revolution, so I stopped and felt all of the spokes but they seem to be tight. To me it seems like in one area 2 spokes are rubbing against each other.
I'm thinking about getting some stainless steel tie wire and tying each set of two spokes together.
Just curious what your thoughts are or if any of you have had the same problem and how you took care of it? It's a Voilamart 26" 48v 1000w wheel.
Thank you20250101_144752.jpg
 
Not disagreeing with marty at all, I'll add...

What is the history of this wheel?
Did you build it?
How and how much has it been ridden before?
 
Look closely at the nipple head on the back flange, daylight is creeping through.
Spokes are loose.
Start at the valve stem and tighten each nipple 1/4 turn.
Sound check the tension by light tapping the spoke with a wrench.
Should have a sharp "ping"
Not tight enough ?
Do the same 1/4 turn routine.

Some tips in this thread :

Wheel Building ... This just looks Wrong​

 
Last edited:
PaPaSteve said:
Look closely at the nipple head on the back flange, daylight is creeping through.
Spokes are loose.
Start at the valve stem and tighten each nipple 1/4 turn.
Sound check the tension by light tapping the spoke with a wrench.
Should have a sharp "ping"
Not tight enough ?
Do the same 1/4 turn routine.

Some tips in this thread :

Wheel Building ... This just looks Wrong​

Click to expand...
Wow, thanks very much, seems like a simple way to keep it all even... gonna watch the videos the others have suggested and read through the threads, get me a tool and give it a shot, once I get it done, I'll let you all know how it went, thanks again guys I appreciate it... I wouldn't have guessed a brand new wheel would need tightening, but the wheel and battery are 30lbs and I'm 250lbs..
 
Also some lubricant on nipples. Type of lubricant? I don't feel qualified to answer that question.

Some spoke nipple lubricant will dry so spokes don't get loose.

I just put boiled linseed oil on a hammer handle. Dried out wood was SCREAMING "please put some oil on me". Hammer is happy now.
 
Classic low quality, low price DD hub wheel build that probably wasn't correctly trued out of the box.

Re-lacing it would be a quality fix. sapim butted spokes being the best option.
 
Back in the day . . . when I was doing low volume production builds and buying built wheels from an American wheel builder they were never fully tightened.
Accuracy of alignment was always within advertised tolerance.
1/2 turn usually fixed them.
 
First wheel I built came loose and made noise within the first 10 miles. After tightening once it was fine. Now when I build wheels I hit the spokes with a rubber mallet and stand on them a couple of times to stress everything. If you dont stress it before final tightening then the settling will loosen it while riding like what you are experiencing.

Basically you want the heads and nipples to kinda sink into the hub before the final tension is set. Otherwise you get it all done and this settling happens on your first rides which creates gaps and loose spokes.

This is more common when the spokes are too thick for the rim. They need some stretch to keep them tight. Some cheap hub motor wheels use such large diameter spokes that the rim gives up before the spokes reach adequate stretch to keep them tight.

Strongest wheel comes from the correct spoke for the rim not the fattest spoke. The rim determines the spoke you choose. The weight/load determines the rim you choose.

You may be fine with a single tightening of this wheel but if it's a recurring problem you may end up wanting to re-lace it with different spokes.

Try to snug it up and pay close attention to it for a few rides.
 
DanGT86 said:
First wheel I built came loose and made noise within the first 10 miles. After tightening once it was fine. Now when I build wheels I hit the spokes with a rubber mallet and stand on them a couple of times to stress everything. If you dont stress it before final tightening then the settling will loosen it while riding like what you are experiencing.

Basically you want the heads and nipples to kinda sink into the hub before the final tension is set. Otherwise you get it all done and this settling happens on your first rides which creates gaps and loose spokes.

This is more common when the spokes are too thick for the rim. They need some stretch to keep them tight. Some cheap hub motor wheels use such large diameter spokes that the rim gives up before the spokes reach adequate stretch to keep them tight.

Strongest wheel comes from the correct spoke for the rim not the fattest spoke. The rim determines the spoke you choose. The weight/load determines the rim you choose.

You may be fine with a single tightening of this wheel but if it's a recurring problem you may end up wanting to re-lace it with different spokes.

Try to snug it up and pay close attention to it for a few rides.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much, I ordered a spoke tightener and will give it a shot...
 
Just remember to go slow and make uniform adjustments like 1/8 of a turn or 1/4 turn at a time.

If the wheel is already true then tightening all of them uniformly will keep you from getting into trouble. If its got some wobble and you are tightening it anyway then this is a great chance to true it. I personally like to tighten the spokes in groups. If you look closely there are 4 groups. Right-leading Left-leading Right-right trailing and Left-trailing. The pattern repeats every 4 spokes. So I start at the valve stem and tighten spoke 1,5,9,13,17..... Once you have made it all the way around do the same for 2,6,10,14etc. I feel like this is better than tightening everything all at once then finding out that was too tight when you get to the other side of the wheel.

I use zip ties around the frame. You can cut them just long enough to almost touch the side of the wheel. As the rim wobbles side to side its very obvious when it hits the zip tie. As it gets better you can switch to progressively closer zip ties.

Be patient and dont try to make all of the side to side adjustment in one spoke. If it hits in a spot I usually tighten the other side spoke a 1/4 or half turn then move to the next spokes on that side and do progressively less of a turn. Basically you want several spokes to share the job of straightening that spot.

If you get to a point where fixing a side to side wobble is starting to create an up/down wobble then that will determine whether you loosen a spoke or tighten a spoke to fix the side to side wobble.

Lastly, put the non wrench hand on the spoke while you turn the nipple. Try to notice how far the spoke twists before the nipple actually turns. If you are tightening a 1/4 turn but the first 10 degrees just twists the spoke then you will want to tighten 90+10deg then rotate back 10 to relax the twist. Its not an exact science but you want to get a feel for it and be aware of the extra twist. When your non spoke wrench hand is on the spoke you can feel if the spoke is twisting or just the nipple.

I find that beer and music helps a lot during this process. Wheel building and truing is a bit of a flow state.
 
Last edited:
DanGT86 said:
Just remember to go slow and make uniform adjustments like 1/8 of a turn or 1/4 turn at a time.

If the wheel is already true then tightening all of them uniformly will keep you from getting into trouble. If its got some wobble and you are tightening it anyway then this is a great chance to true it.

I use zip ties around the frame. You can cut them just long enough to almost touch the side of the wheel. As the rim wobbles side to side its very obvious when it hits the zip tie. As it gets better you can switch to progressively closer zip ties.

Be patient and dont try to make all of the side to side adjustment in one spoke. If it hits in a spot I usually tighten the other side spoke a 1/4 or half turn then move to the next spokes on that side and do progressively less of a turn. Basically you want several spokes to share the job of straightening that spot.

If you get to a point where fixing a side to side wobble is starting to create an up/down wobble then that will determine whether you loosen a spoke or tighten a spoke to fix the side to side wobble.

I find that beer and music helps a lot during this process. Wheel building and truing is a bit of a flow state.
Click to expand...
I can't thank you enough for the detailed information, very hopeful. I've straightened a few rims on my BMX bikes 40 to 50 years ago so let's see what happens this time. Lol.
Thankfully the rim is perfectly straight now so hopefully with me tightening them all evenly as you described will keep it true. Once I get the tool from Amazon I will let you all know how it went. Again thank you all very much, this site is awesome.
 
I have only used the cheap hub kits and it is just constant that a spoke or two is going to need tightening every other ride or so. I assumed it was just hub motor maintenance.
 
My first motor was an ultra cheapo MXUS geared hub and the giant spokes ended up fracturing the motor's casing for the second owner. That wheel had weird spoke issues since the beginning.

My leafbike wheel build and 100% of what i've ordered from Grin that had sapim spokes have been great.

I only buy quality these days & recommend the same.
 
Luckily this bike only gets ridden on Saturdays when I'm not working and probably a maximum of only 10 miles each time I take it out, and I cannot go every saturday. I don't ride it around the neighborhood or for any other purpose than to just cruise the beach on the boardwalk, drink a few beers and people watch.. But I want it to last and I wasn't expecting to have to tighten spokes within the first 15 miles but oh well hopefully it's easy enough.
 
There are two styles of spoke wrenches.
"C" style where the opening looks like a typical wrench.
Use this one to do the bulk of the work.
"Diamond" style grabs the nipple more securely.
The opening to the diamond shape is smaller which barely fits the spoke diameter so is a bit more fiddly to use.
Use for final tension because it is less likely to damage the nipple / round the corners of the nipple.
 
hillslayer@ said:
I have only used the cheap hub kits and it is just constant that a spoke or two is going to need tightening every other ride or so. I assumed it was just hub motor maintenance.
Click to expand...
Sort of is when you buy a pre laced hub motor wheel; until you go through the process of retensioning all of the spokes (finally get tired of adjusting every time you hear spoke noises). I noticed even on my poorly self laced wheel, I’ve never had any of the noises/symptoms.
 
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