My Wheel Plays Like A Harp While I Ride

Sometimes black spokes make a noise from the crossing. The coating is a bit rough I guess and until it rubs smooth the spokes can make a noise. Pinging on a newly built wheel can be from spokes unwinding. If the wheel isn’t “stress relieved” after building riding will cause the tension to decrease which allows the spokes to unwind and ping. There are various valid methods to stress relieve. Squeezing spokes, flexing the rim sideways, walking on the rim in socks. They all do the same thing. Momentarily removing tension from a spoke to allow it to unwind itself. With bladed spokes you can see the wind up and take it out while building with a spoke tool. With round spokes you can feel the spokes wind up if you put your fingers on the spoke while tightening or loosening a nipple, then go the opposite way to take out that wind up but that isn’t very accurate so you still want to stress relieve. 

I’ve noticed on my own carbon rimmed wheels that spokes will ping after a season or two even when tension is still up to spec. No idea what causes that but I’ve rebuilt wheels like that with new spokes and the noise goes away. 

I always build with something to lock the nipple threads. Just oil will allow the nipple to unwind when I get a bit squirrelly and side load a wheel. Some builders say that just oil is fine and that a properly tensioned wheel can’t lose tension when riding normally. I say, define normally? Mountain biking is way more harsh than road riding. I say lock those threads with something.

Posted by: andy-eunson

Sometimes black spokes make a noise from the crossing. The coating is a bit rough I guess and until it rubs smooth the spokes can make a noise. Pinging on a newly built wheel can be from spokes unwinding. If the wheel isn’t “stress relieved” after building riding will cause the tension to decrease which allows the spokes to unwind and ping. There are various valid methods to stress relieve. Squeezing spokes, flexing the rim sideways, walking on the rim in socks. They all do the same thing. Momentarily removing tension from a spoke to allow it to unwind itself. With bladed spokes you can see the wind up and take it out while building with a spoke tool. With round spokes you can feel the spokes wind up if you put your fingers on the spoke while tightening or loosening a nipple, then go the opposite way to take out that wind up but that isn’t very accurate so you still want to stress relieve. 

I’ve noticed on my own carbon rimmed wheels that spokes will ping after a season or two even when tension is still up to spec. No idea what causes that but I’ve rebuilt wheels like that with new spokes and the noise goes away. 

I always build with something to lock the nipple threads. Just oil will allow the nipple to unwind when I get a bit squirrelly and side load a wheel. Some builders say that just oil is fine and that a properly tensioned wheel can’t lose tension when riding normally. I say, define normally? Mountain biking is way more harsh than road riding. I say lock those threads with something.

I think you maybe onto something with the black spokes being rougher. 

I was at the shop today and spoke with the tech that built my wheel. The wheel was de-stressed and retention. 

The tech stood still and I pedaled in a circle around him. This gave him some great insight. The noise is definitely coming from where the spoke crosses. After 8 months and way over 800km I would have thought the spokes would have smoothed out and stopped clicking.... But oh no. It's magic bike wind chime while I pedal up every climb.

Posted by: heathen

Posted by: andy-eunson

Sometimes black spokes make a noise from the crossing. The coating is a bit rough I guess and until it rubs smooth the spokes can make a noise. Pinging on a newly built wheel can be from spokes unwinding. If the wheel isn’t “stress relieved” after building riding will cause the tension to decrease which allows the spokes to unwind and ping. There are various valid methods to stress relieve. Squeezing spokes, flexing the rim sideways, walking on the rim in socks. They all do the same thing. Momentarily removing tension from a spoke to allow it to unwind itself. With bladed spokes you can see the wind up and take it out while building with a spoke tool. With round spokes you can feel the spokes wind up if you put your fingers on the spoke while tightening or loosening a nipple, then go the opposite way to take out that wind up but that isn’t very accurate so you still want to stress relieve. 

I’ve noticed on my own carbon rimmed wheels that spokes will ping after a season or two even when tension is still up to spec. No idea what causes that but I’ve rebuilt wheels like that with new spokes and the noise goes away. 

I always build with something to lock the nipple threads. Just oil will allow the nipple to unwind when I get a bit squirrelly and side load a wheel. Some builders say that just oil is fine and that a properly tensioned wheel can’t lose tension when riding normally. I say, define normally? Mountain biking is way more harsh than road riding. I say lock those threads with something.

I think you maybe onto something with the black spokes being rougher. 

I was at the shop today and spoke with the tech that built my wheel. The wheel was de-stressed and retention. 

The tech stood still and I pedaled in a circle around him. This gave him some great insight. The noise is definitely coming from where the spoke crosses. After 8 months and way over 800km I would have thought the spokes would have smoothed out and stopped clicking.... But oh no. It's magic bike wind chime while I pedal up every climb.

Try greasing the crossings all the way round both sides and see what happens.

Man, sounds like that wheel needs to be tied and soldered!

Posted by: tashi

Man, sounds like that wheel needs to be tied and soldered!

Might help with noise if, IF, the crossings are the source. But Jobst Brandt says no point. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/tied-soldered.html

Besides that it’s 2021. We all want compliance now don’t we?

Nah, I want old school flavor. 

Seems odd that it would continue this long if it were the spoke crossings though. 

I love these puzzles (on someone else’s bike)

Posted by: heathen

Posted by: andy-eunson

Sometimes black spokes make a noise from the crossing. The coating is a bit rough I guess and until it rubs smooth the spokes can make a noise. Pinging on a newly built wheel can be from spokes unwinding. If the wheel isn’t “stress relieved” after building riding will cause the tension to decrease which allows the spokes to unwind and ping. There are various valid methods to stress relieve. Squeezing spokes, flexing the rim sideways, walking on the rim in socks. They all do the same thing. Momentarily removing tension from a spoke to allow it to unwind itself. With bladed spokes you can see the wind up and take it out while building with a spoke tool. With round spokes you can feel the spokes wind up if you put your fingers on the spoke while tightening or loosening a nipple, then go the opposite way to take out that wind up but that isn’t very accurate so you still want to stress relieve. 

I’ve noticed on my own carbon rimmed wheels that spokes will ping after a season or two even when tension is still up to spec. No idea what causes that but I’ve rebuilt wheels like that with new spokes and the noise goes away. 

I always build with something to lock the nipple threads. Just oil will allow the nipple to unwind when I get a bit squirrelly and side load a wheel. Some builders say that just oil is fine and that a properly tensioned wheel can’t lose tension when riding normally. I say, define normally? Mountain biking is way more harsh than road riding. I say lock those threads with something.

I think you maybe onto something with the black spokes being rougher. 

I was at the shop today and spoke with the tech that built my wheel. The wheel was de-stressed and retention. 

The tech stood still and I pedaled in a circle around him. This gave him some great insight. The noise is definitely coming from where the spoke crosses. After 8 months and way over 800km I would have thought the spokes would have smoothed out and stopped clicking.... But oh no. It's magic bike wind chime while I pedal up every climb.

I've been building black-spoked bikes for half a decade now... mine don't sing..

Posted by: ReductiMat

Posted by: heathen

Posted by: andy-eunson

Sometimes black spokes make a noise from the crossing. The coating is a bit rough I guess and until it rubs smooth the spokes can make a noise. Pinging on a newly built wheel can be from spokes unwinding. If the wheel isn’t “stress relieved” after building riding will cause the tension to decrease which allows the spokes to unwind and ping. There are various valid methods to stress relieve. Squeezing spokes, flexing the rim sideways, walking on the rim in socks. They all do the same thing. Momentarily removing tension from a spoke to allow it to unwind itself. With bladed spokes you can see the wind up and take it out while building with a spoke tool. With round spokes you can feel the spokes wind up if you put your fingers on the spoke while tightening or loosening a nipple, then go the opposite way to take out that wind up but that isn’t very accurate so you still want to stress relieve. 

I’ve noticed on my own carbon rimmed wheels that spokes will ping after a season or two even when tension is still up to spec. No idea what causes that but I’ve rebuilt wheels like that with new spokes and the noise goes away. 

I always build with something to lock the nipple threads. Just oil will allow the nipple to unwind when I get a bit squirrelly and side load a wheel. Some builders say that just oil is fine and that a properly tensioned wheel can’t lose tension when riding normally. I say, define normally? Mountain biking is way more harsh than road riding. I say lock those threads with something.

I think you maybe onto something with the black spokes being rougher. 

I was at the shop today and spoke with the tech that built my wheel. The wheel was de-stressed and retention. 

The tech stood still and I pedaled in a circle around him. This gave him some great insight. The noise is definitely coming from where the spoke crosses. After 8 months and way over 800km I would have thought the spokes would have smoothed out and stopped clicking.... But oh no. It's magic bike wind chime while I pedal up every climb.

I've been building black-spoked bikes for half a decade now... mine don't sing..

I think I’ve been building with black spokes over 20 years and it is rare for my wheels to make noises but it may have been a really light build I had with super light DT spokes. They were the only wheels I built myself where I broke spokes after a season of racing and training. Too light. I think they were noisy at first. But that was a long time ago. I remember greasing spoke crossing at some point on a wheel of mine to test the theory my friend came up with. He weighed 240. His bike was noisy.

I wonder what this one sounds like?

Like parrot laughter.