Noisy front wheel

[SteelyDan]

Anyone riding Mavic Cosmic Carbones? Just bought a set off the Hub and they're lekker but they're the noisiest wheels I've ever heard...

 

Front wheel "rattles" over anything vaguely bumpy (no, not at Northern Farms). Is this normal? It isn't exactly confidence-inspiring!

 

Hub seems smooth, no play, spins fine. Spokes seem tight and balanced. Can't find the source of the rattle...

 

Any ideas?

[Johan Bornman]

A rattling wheel is a sure sign of loose cones. Wiggle the wheel sideways in the frame and if it gives you a mechanical "click" feedback, the cones are loose. Also, if you grab the bike by the throad and bang it down a couple of times, you'll hear the rattle of loose cones.

 

Sensitive riders in touch witht their feminine side, will also feel a loose cone when pumping a wheel.

 

 

[SteelyDan]

 

 

Sensitive riders in touch witht their feminine side, will also feel a loose cone when pumping a wheel.

 

?

 

?

 

 

 

EKSKUUS???

 

 

 

Thanks JB. Now I suppose I need cone spanners and stuff?

 

Will PM you.

[Johan Bornman]

We had a look at this wheel today and the rattle remains a mystery. I didn't ride the wheel but bounched, shook, kicked, tapped and spun the wheel. Only once did I think a rattle was produced. I tried to convince myself that it was emanating from a particular spoke that was slightly twisted and seemed to shake against the fairing. I re-aligned the spoke (it is a flat spoke that twisted sideways) and afterwards could not repeat the ghostly rattle.

 

The bearings are fine, the cones are just right.

 

Anyone else out there with Carbones that rattle?

 

These wheels are acoustic amplifiers, being hollow and sonorous like a violin casing.

 

[Johan Bornman]

Wayne, I think that is a very plausible thought.

SteelyDan, I showed you how the fairing is glued to the aluminium rim. I suggest you look for symptoms of what Wayne describers by tapping against the fairing where it sits agains the alu rim. Tap tap tap right around, both sides and see if you come up with an area where the sound changes.