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I like to think I’m mechanically-minded and know my way around a bike, but I’m stumped on this one so asking the STW hive mind.
My gravel bike (Ribble CGR AL) has centre lock discs on mavic allroad UST wheels. They’re straight pull hubs.
The issue: When my front wheel gets hit laterally (simulated when I hit my wheel with my hand against the side of the tyre) there’s a metallic vibration sound, akin to a tuning fork.
I know what you’re thinking: Disc itself, but that’s not the it. I can replicate the same action but hold the disc tightly in a cloth, and the sound still happens. So surely can’t be the disc reverberating.
Second guess: the centre lock assembly is loose. I’ve tightened the hell out of both F and R, no dice.
Thirdly, spokes. I’ve tested them all for tension and all seem fine. I’ve dropped a bit of oil at the straight pull interface on hub, no diff.
This isn’t a big deal really, but it becomes all I hear when riding! When out of saddle hammering, the carbon fork flexes like crazy and the sound is just as audible. Same goes for rocks etc hitting front rim when on gravel.
Any thoughts or ideas welcomed before I dismantle the entire front of bike to cure my ailments.
Is it where the spokes touch as they cross over?
Brake pad springs?
Presta valve lock-ring? Something loose in the rim?
Mavic wheels use very high spoke tensioning - this might just be a 'feature' of yours (I have 4 sets of Mavic OEM wheels in the house, but they don't do that.
Thanks for the feedback folks. On second or third pass the (brand new) mavic rims are the culprit. The spokes were definitely not tensioned properly out of the factory. After a round of proper tensioning (and then an hour of finessed truing) it’s all good; the sound is almost fully gone.
Got to say I’m pretty miffed that a brand new set of wheels were that poorly made. Anyone else have similar issues with mavic?