Post by WDB on Nov 27, 2020 13:43:16 GMT
I’d never paid them much attention before. In fact, I can’t think of a time or a bike when they’ve not just been ‘there’, keeping the rim and the hub about the same distance apart.
Then on Tuesday I was on my way home from a nice outing through Checkendon when I heard a curious honking noise that made me (briefly) think there must be geese beyond the hedge that bordered the lane. But no, unless the geese were speeding up and slowing down with me, so I stopped to investigate. It turned out to be the sidewall of my rear tyre rubbing the seat stay once per revolution. The bike has thru-axles and disc brakes — a pretty robust setup that still seemed correctly aligned. The rear tyre, as recorded here, is wider than the original but is exactly what you’d get if you bought a new example of this bike, and it had done over a thousand trouble-free kilometres.
Loosening, reseating and tightening everything didn’t help, so I honked slowly home and put the bike away. It’s been a busy week, so only today did I get to investigate properly. With some prompting from YouTube, I checked the spokes, and duly found three together, all on the left side, that were too loose to do their job of pulling the rim away from the right-side frame, and a couple more, away from the rubbing spot. So I tightened them as best I could with the rudimentary spoke key on my folding tool and the effect was miraculous. No more honking!
I should have known all this, of course. But I’ve checked the front spokes too — all OK, but then they don’t work as hard. And I’m off to the expensive bike shop in town to do penance by buying a proper spoke key. And I missed my lunchtime ride, but at least I’ll get a good one tomorrow.
Then on Tuesday I was on my way home from a nice outing through Checkendon when I heard a curious honking noise that made me (briefly) think there must be geese beyond the hedge that bordered the lane. But no, unless the geese were speeding up and slowing down with me, so I stopped to investigate. It turned out to be the sidewall of my rear tyre rubbing the seat stay once per revolution. The bike has thru-axles and disc brakes — a pretty robust setup that still seemed correctly aligned. The rear tyre, as recorded here, is wider than the original but is exactly what you’d get if you bought a new example of this bike, and it had done over a thousand trouble-free kilometres.
Loosening, reseating and tightening everything didn’t help, so I honked slowly home and put the bike away. It’s been a busy week, so only today did I get to investigate properly. With some prompting from YouTube, I checked the spokes, and duly found three together, all on the left side, that were too loose to do their job of pulling the rim away from the right-side frame, and a couple more, away from the rubbing spot. So I tightened them as best I could with the rudimentary spoke key on my folding tool and the effect was miraculous. No more honking!
I should have known all this, of course. But I’ve checked the front spokes too — all OK, but then they don’t work as hard. And I’m off to the expensive bike shop in town to do penance by buying a proper spoke key. And I missed my lunchtime ride, but at least I’ll get a good one tomorrow.
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