Noisy rear wheel - spokes?

[figbat]

The rear wheel on my 29er hardtail is quite noisy. It appears to be the spokes and with a bit of pinching they seem a little loose. The wheel went in new a few months ago and seems to be true. It’s set up tubeless and adding pressure to the tyre reduces the noise.

Sheldon Brown says that if all spokes are loose you work around the wheel spoke by spoke with the same turn. I’d have guessed it might be better to do it at 180° or 90° intervals around the wheel.

Any advice? I’ve never touched spoke tension before.

 

[PpPete]

If you tighten two spokes that are on the same side as each other but at 180 deg you will start to "pringle" the wheel. If you tighten a pair of spokes (one left and one right) and another pair at 180deg you will be heading for an elliptical wheel. Start tightening things at 90 deg and you will very soon have a very noodly POS.

If you still have the old wheel I strongly recommend you demonstrate this for yourself, before going any where near a wheel you want to ride on.
Alternatively, have a look at the two sticky threads at the top of this board, one about breaking spokes, the other about wheel truing.

 

[faster]

As you're not getting many responses, I'll have a go!

I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do it, and I can't remember why I do it this way, but it's the way I do it and it has always turned out fine.

If I need to put more tension in a wheel, I start at the valve, then tighten the first spoke up. If it's really loose, I'd start with a quarter of a turn, if not very loose, try an eighth. Then skip two spokes and do the next one and so on. Once you get back to the valve, do the second spoke away from the valve up, skip two etc for the second 'lap' of the wheel. After the third 'lap' starting from the third spoke from the valve, then will all have been tightened. If it's still too loose repeat the process.

Tighten each spoke by the same amount - don't be tempted to tighten a spoke a bit more if it feels really loose or it'll all go out of shape. Once you've finished, you may need to true it - see the sticky thread mentioned above.

Worth getting a proper spoke key of the right size. It's easy to round nipples off with the cheap ones that do multiple sizes.