Rattle Spoke

[Woofie]

So I finally got it right.

Tubeless conversion on my road bike.

 

Got in two tubless hutchinson Atom's from overseas.

Two months later they eventually get here and then I set about doing me thing...

 

First mistake is I tried to do the thing the day before the argus.

Yes, I know, I know.

 

Got normal rims (Sprint 350) so pulled out the threaded tape and insulation tape.

Got that going added some slime (some water based cr&p)

Oh, never had any UST valves, so clever boy decided to create his own out of old tubes.

 

Well, the night before the race my bike was all ready, good to go.

Got downstairs at 4.30am to find the one wheel was flat.

Figured out that it was now leaking at the valve and I couldnt re-inflate it.

So I tighten the little nut thing to pull down the valve.

And I over-did it with the pliers so next thing I realise that I had pulled the whole thing into the rim.

So, lay down newspaper in the kitchen and prepare for the mess.

Eventually get the freaking tight tyre off the rim and try to get the valve out.

Well, no luck.

So at 5am I am in the garage busy wacking this thing out with my hammer.

Well it came out pretty cleanly.

Now this is the time when I should have just grabbed my old tyre and a tube.

But the male ego inside of me said, no I have to get this thing working.

So I made another "homemade" UST valve and this time I put a little nut on the valve on the inside covered with a piece of rubber to seal it off.

Fitted the tyre again, with more added slime = more mess over the kitchen and all over me.

Pump, pump. Not sealing, tighten nut. Pump pump.

Not sealing

Grab pliers

Tighten

Tighten

Pump, pump

Not sealing

Grab pliers again.

Tighten

 

Oh cr@p.

There is too much valve on this side.

OH MY <IY*I&Y(&*Y(* I have pulled the whole nut into the rim.

 

So off with the tyre again, which has just been freshly marinated with more slime.

Off to the garage again this time the hammer treatment was really brutal to get the valve out again.

And the damage was more horrible than a newbies @ss in prison.

Ouch.

By this time I had missed my start group.

Scrounge around in the garage for a hard piece of plastic which I cut into a strip, drill a hole for the valve and I have to re-rim tape my rim now at the same time too.

So the plastic is now covering the abortion which I created, covered with a few layers of threaded tape.

Normal tyre & tube. I hit the shower (slime) and I am in the car to leave just before 8am when I was meant to start at 6.45.

 

Race was long and slow, but I have to admit that my tubeless back tyre felt amazing.

I could feel the difference.

 

Anyway.

Look at my bike during the week and I see that the back tyre was now also flat, so that slime was a total waste of time obviously.

 

So this weekend I decided to do the right thing.

Went to my LBS and got proper UST valves and some Joe's sealant.

 

I needed to repair my front rim, so I put a straw through the hole with 3 kebab sticks in it to beef it up a bit and I set about putting some carbon fiber into there and I made the hole all nice and pretty again. I needed to do that because the UST valve would never seal against a brutal hole bigger than itself.

 

Once dry, I spent time very carefully layering down my insulation and threaded tape so that it was exactly in the middle of the rim.

Fitted normal tyre and tube to inflate to "set" the tape correctly.

Remove and set about fitting tubeless tyre.

Much big words later tyre is finally on.

Fit valve. Glue it in a little just to make sure.

Let it dry.......

Tyre sits so tight that I can inflate it with my foot pump.

Get nice big syringe and inject joes through the removable valve core. That was the easiest thing ever.

Pump, pump nice and easy and we done.

Repeat procedure for back tyre.

Take bike around block for a spin and it feels 100%.

Wow, I can feel the difference.

Not huge, but it just seems to feel softer almost. Weird.

 

However, as I am riding it sounds like my chip is rattling.

So when I get home I hunt down the rattle and to my MISERY is is one of my spokes.

SOB SOB SOB.

Not broken, but the nipple seems to be fused to the flipping thing.

Tried my best to tighten it, but to my dismay it it stuck.

 

So now

After my long story.

 

Is there any penetrating oil that could help to loosen the nipple?

 

I really really dont want to have to redo the whole rim.

 

I takes forever!

 

The rim is still running 100% true, which makes me think that that spoke must have always been loose but maybe there was a bit of dirt or something just holding it taught enough not to rattle.

 

Ideas?

 

Help?

 

Is it time to fit sapin super light spokes to it (it is the front wheel, so I think I could push the weight limit thing)

 

What should I do boys?

[numbnuts]

What you should do in future is NOT to try and sell that wheelset here on the hub.

[Woofie]

What you should do in future is NOT to try and sell that wheelset here on the hub.

 

Not quite the advice I was looking for!

 

But my repair does look pretty awesome though!

[andretraut]

I really need to ask you a question, but I'm cautious to offend you in any way...........if you and your missus/gf/partner walk in public, does she wear one of those t-shirts that says "I'm with stupid" ?

[FrancoisC]

You're just going to get abused now mate.

Walk away and learn from this.

[Woofie]

Ok, ok guys.

Yes, yes

 

Now back to the spoke.

 

Any way to fix the rattle?

[Azonic]

My LBS uses some kind of special oil to loosen tough spokes... Put a drop on the nipple and let it rest over night. I'm not sure what the stuff is called though.

[LeTurbo]

Prestik?

[Woofie]

My LBS uses some kind of special oil to loosen tough spokes... Put a drop on the nipple and let it rest over night. I'm not sure what the stuff is called though.

 

Dont you want to drop him a call sometime pls?

[Woofie]

Prestik?

 

Tried that on my stem..... Didnt work.

 

haha.

Whatever. Would have been dead now.

 

Was even considering just throwing a cable tie around a nearby spoke to put a bit of tension on it that will stop the rattle.

But it will really look crap and also I can imagine that having a loose spoke is not really ideal either.

[Azonic]

Dont you want to drop him a call sometime pls?

 

Sent him an SMS, should respond pretty soon. Will let you know.

[Azonic]

Was even considering just throwing a cable tie around a nearby spoke to put a bit of tension on it that will stop the rattle.

 

You sure that will work? With spokes leaning at an angle to the next spoke, surely a cable tie will slide all the way up to the hub?

 

...and it will look sharty

[Woofie]

Sent him an SMS, should respond pretty soon. Will let you know.

 

Shot

[Woofie]

You sure that will work? With spokes leaning at an angle to the next spoke, surely a cable tie will slide all the way up to the hub?

 

...and it will look sharty

 

very sharky

[grumpy]

Hi Woofie

 

Nice summary of the struggle, I could not help laughing, pity about your Argus.

 

Just some advice, don't try and inject the sealant through the valve, rather open the tyre up on one side, rotate the open side to the bottom and throw in a cup of sealant, now rotate the open side to the top.

The sealant will now flow to the bottom of the tyre that is sealed against the rim.

Push the tyre onto the rim.

Rotate the tyre 360 degrees to make sure the sealant has covered the whole rim.

Inflate and off you go.

 

I did both mine in 30 minutes.

[Woofie]

Hi Woofie

 

Nice summary of the struggle, I could not help laughing, pity about your Argus.

 

Just some advice, don't try and inject the sealant through the valve, rather open the tyre up on one side, rotate the open side to the bottom and throw in a cup of sealant, now rotate the open side to the top.

The sealant will now flow to the bottom of the tyre that is sealed against the rim.

Push the tyre onto the rim.

Rotate the tyre 360 degrees to make sure the sealant has covered the whole rim.

Inflate and off you go.

 

I did both mine in 30 minutes.

 

I did it that way the first time.

Worked ok, but I found that I wasted some sealant when trying to seat the tyre as it is so tight.

Also once the tyre was on, it was so tight that I didnt really want to try to get it off again.

Found the syringe worked so so well and it was so so easy.

Squeezing the joes bottle ended up putting zero sealant into valve, stupid thing.

But the syringe was like a hot knife in butter, so so easy.