truing carbon rims

[Jameshow]

I actually dislike that sound, especially because I hear it all the time as faster riders overtake me!

I will stick with aluminium rims.

Sorry mate will try and be quieter next time! 🤣🤣🤣

 

[Ming the Merciless]

I actually dislike that sound, especially because I hear it all the time as faster riders overtake me!

I will stick with aluminium rims.

What about playing cards in my spokes as I pass. Is that acceptable?

 

[Webbo2]

That's fine if your bike is just a toy. Mine have to be reliable over long distances.

I think the last time I had a spoke break it was in a aluminium rim. My toys done a fair miles this year.

 

[T4tomo]

Carbon rims are less prone to bucking than Aluminium ones.

Provided you use the correct brake blocks, for rim brakes, they appear to wear less than aluminium rims also, as the brake block is a softer compound.
The downside is, with rim brakes, they don't stop as well in the wet.

 

[Punkawallah]

Because they look nice and they make a nice swooshing sound.

Taping an empty pop bottle with the lid off to the bars might get the noise without the expense. Bugger. I’ll have to do it, now.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

To be fair many carbon wheels are bomb proof enough even cheap china ones are decent quality now. It’s Hunt wheels that have weak spokes. You can still knock out 200 milers on them but you’ll end up with a buckle at some point with Hunt carbons.

Interesting what you say. Hunt wheels have a bad rap and I have no experience of them. However, they use exactly the same spokes as other suppliers. The main spoke manufacturers are Sapim, DT-Swis, PIllar, Alpina and Wheelsmith. All of those make excellent spokes from more or less the same material, mostly sourced from Sandvic in Sweden.

Hunt will use one of those, maybe someone with Hunt wheels can confirm.

The reason they break on Hunt wheels is that Hunt as not yet figured out how to stress-relieve spokes after building. Back in the 1980s stress relieving on bicycle wheels was still a dark art understood by few, but practiced by a few more who applied it without knowing why. Nowadays it is no secret, yet some companies just don't do it.

A properly stress-relieve spoke will last for hundreds of thousands of kilometers. I have wheels I built roundabout 1990 with DT Swiss Revolution spokes which did 230 000kms before I gave the bike to a friend. These were stress relieved. In the 25 years I rode the bike I broke one spoke and the reason that one broke was entirely my fault. I had scored the spoke by holding it not tight enough with a pair of needle-nosed pliers whilst turning the nipple. The spoke slipped in the jaws and turned, creating a perfect circumferencial groove, which acted as a stress riser and the spoke broke cleanly at that point, after approximately 50 000 kms.

Spoke weakness is not the primary problem with poor wheels but poor technique. Only really cheap and rubbish bikes still use sub-standard spokes.

 

[ktmbiker58]

What about playing cards in my spokes as I pass. Is that acceptable?

Didn't there used to be a bicycle exhaust pipe that you attached to your bike that had something similar to make a noise 🤔

 

[ktmbiker58]

What about playing cards in my spokes as I pass. Is that acceptable?

Found it - hehe

 

[Big John]

The subject of stressing a wheel, as mentioned in posts above, is interesting especially to amateur wheel builders like me. For any like minded enthusiasts the following vid may be of interest.


View: https://youtu.be/_RME-JTs4YQ?feature=shared


Fascinating. I've been knocking out wheels for a few years now and I thought I knew what I was doing but I'm ashamed to say I don't know as much as I thought I did. Jumping up and down on a newly built wheel, as seen in the vid, is something I don't think I have the guts to try just yet. This guy must spend some serious time building a wheel.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

The subject of stressing a wheel, as mentioned in posts above, is interesting especially to amateur wheel builders like me. For any like minded enthusiasts the following vid may be of interest.


View: https://youtu.be/_RME-JTs4YQ?feature=shared


Fascinating. I've been knocking out wheels for a few years now and I thought I knew what I was doing but I'm ashamed to say I don't know as much as I thought I did. Jumping up and down on a newly built wheel, as seen in the vid, is something I don't think I have the guts to try just yet. This guy must spend some serious time building a wheel.

Hmmm....

A wheel with all spokes at the same tension cannot be true and conversely, a true wheel cannot have all spokes at the same tension (LH and RH side differences aside).

Further, he confuses stress and stresss-relieve. A tensioned wheel is by definition a wheel in stress. His technique for untwisting is unnecessarily brutal on the body. There are easier ways but if it works, it works. Nevertheless, he doesn't understand stress-relieving, which is a completely different concept to untwisting the spokes.

He also seems to think that riding along can make indents in the rim if you don't do that beforehand. That's not how it works.

 

[figbat]

Interesting what you say. Hunt wheels have a bad rap and I have no experience of them. However, they use exactly the same spokes as other suppliers. The main spoke manufacturers are Sapim, DT-Swis, PIllar, Alpina and Wheelsmith. All of those make excellent spokes from more or less the same material, mostly sourced from Sandvic in Sweden.

Hunt will use one of those, maybe someone with Hunt wheels can confirm.

I have a pair of Hunt Trail Wide 30 mm wheels in 27.5”, these are the spoke specifications:

These wheels replaced a pair of RaceFace Aeffect R wheels which had straight-pull spokes, three of which snapped (rear wheel) on a multi-day tour a couple of years ago. The good thing about straight pull spokes is that they can be replaced with the disc and cassette still on the wheel. If the nipple is still in the rim and still useable you can even do it with the tyre still on the rim.

 

[Punkawallah]

Taping an empty pop bottle with the lid off to the bars might get the noise without the expense. Bugger. I’ll have to do it, now.

Nope. Doesn’t work. Tried altering the angle of the opening, different speeds, up and down hill, upwind and downwind, not a squeak.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

I have a pair of Hunt Trail Wide 30 mm wheels in 27.5”, these are the spoke specifications:

View attachment 784081
These wheels replaced a pair of RaceFace Aeffect R wheels which had straight-pull spokes, three of which snapped (rear wheel) on a multi-day tour a couple of years ago. The good thing about straight pull spokes is that they can be replaced with the disc and cassette still on the wheel. If the nipple is still in the rim and still useable you can even do it with the tyre still on the rim.

Thanks for sharing. I was pretty certain Hunt would use spokes from one of the known suppliers.

Straight pull spokes have other problems, but you are correct, they can be replaced without removing the cassette.

 

[ColinJ]

Straight pull spokes have other problems...

What are those problems? (They always seemed like a good idea, and I haven't had any problems on those wheels of mine that have had them.)

PS I did a search and found this, so you don't need to answer!

 

[Yellow Saddle]

What are those problems? (They always seemed like a good idea, and I haven't had any problems on those wheels of mine that have had them.)

PS I did a search and found this, so you don't need to answer!

Not a bad comparison. Except...he forgot to say that straight-pulls are crap. They turn in the hub when tensioning and, the head of a spoke is the weakest part of a spoke. With J-Bend, the head is never stressed, but in SP - it is always stressed and breaks quicker from fatigue.

Problems in my summary are: fiddly to build with because of them turning, limited to specific hubs and rims and, weak heads have been made to be structural.