 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Anyone remember those superlight weight mountain alloy 29er wheelset from NS Bikes that was posted here during the fire sale? The ones with super thin spokes and low spoke count.  Well I picked up a pair and recently put them on a bike. Only had a handful of easy going rides through forest trails so far but tonight I took the bike for a spin round town when I started to notice the back end was a bit wobbly so stopped for a look. Noticed one of the spokes had completely unthreaded from the spoke. Tightened it back up with my multi tool, quickly checked a few other spokes and all seemed fine to carry on so I headed home gingerly. Mile or so later back end was feeling wobbly even while cruising at 10mph. This time you can visibly see the rim is all over the shop so I stop and there are about 7 loose spokes (not unthreaded this time but veryyy loose). So I call it a day and walk home. Thankfully not too far.
Either I'm super unlucky (front seems okay so far), wheel wasn't properly tensioned from factory(unlikely?), my fault for not checking before riding (probably) or that these are just fekkin shite.
In all my days I've only had one spoke problem and that was after 7000 odd miles on an ebike when one snapped.
Ah well, better get it sorted either way.
I've had this happen with off the shelf wheels when I was young and inexperienced.
Should be easily fixed as long as you haven't broken anything.
Unwinding like that on a reasonably new wheel is pretty much always an assembly error, well tensioned wheels naturally hold their tension. TBH the components can't really cause it without outright breakage, unless there's something really crazy like out of spec threads on the spokes or nipples causing a poor interface but tbf even cheap spokes these days are mostly fine. What sort of pitch of ping are you getting off the survivors?
if it was me I'd just back them all off and start again, see what happens.
I had several sets of the normal NS wheels for the families bikes.
All were unevenly tensioned.
After backing off and retensioning they have been fine
I've got the same wheels and the rear basically fell apart after a couple of rides. I retensioned it enough to get me home and then did it properly there and it's been fine for 1k km since. I checked the front and that seemed fine and hasn't had any problems.
I bought the dirt cheap DH wheelset just for the rims, I stripped them down and sold the hubs on eBay but not before checking the spoke tension which gave a variety of readings, even the spokes were a variety of 4 different lengths per wheel, 8 of each length. I would've definitely re-tensioned before riding if I was keeping them.
I had this on a the rear of a Niner set of factory built wheels. Re built it and it was fine for a few years of commuting.
Cheap factory wheels need checking regularly.
Had a look at the back wheel using my spoke tension meter and roughly half the spokes are reading zero and the rest are ranging from 2-5. So not exactly very taught! No wonder I could feel some weird sensations when putting the power down. Lucky it didn't fold haha. My god the spokes feel thin and delicate in the hand though. Any good wheel truers/builders in Edinburgh anyone recommends? I hate doing wheels...
I got the same wheels and the same happened to the back wheel. Upon checking, I noticed that it wasn't just the tension which was wrong, one of the spokes had been laced differently to all the others (different under/over pattern relative to other spokes). Does yours have that problem?
My front was fine. Must have been the work experience kid who built those back wheels. Pretty shocking quality control tbh.
I messaged another forum member named rwoofer who had bought the wheels and the same thing had happened to him/her.
captaintomo
Free MemberAny good wheel truers/builders in Edinburgh anyone recommends? I hate doing wheels…
Not edinburgh, but steve d at icycles is good (innerleithen).
Does yours have that problem?
Checked the lacing and all appears to be uniform around the wheel.
icycles
I follow them on Insta and they certainly look great but bit far away for me as wanting to drop them off by bike.
If anyone has any other suggestions I'd be grateful otherwise It'll just be a lucky dip and hope for the best.
Bought the same wheels and a spoke undid itself on the first ride. Took to a bike shop who retensioned them, but they said they were easy on the tension due to the narrowness of the spokes. The wheels only lasted a two further rides. At this point I received my cheap wheel tensioner from Wiggle, so thought I would just tension the wheels up as much as I dare and if they broke, no real loss as I couldn't ride them as they were.
Been fine ever since. I weigh 95kg, so I think I was just too heavy for the tension from the factory and bike shop. If a spoke does break, I will re-lace with some stronger spokes.
Good information rwoofer. Do you have a spoke tension meter? Would be interesting to know where your wheels are sitting.
Pedals on Bruntsfield would probably help you out if that's more convenient, good guys.
@captaintomo I do have a tension meter (however it just measures deflection rather than tension), but didn't use it in this case. Since the spokes are so thin, I can't really compare it to any other wheels as the deflection depends on thickness.
Thanks rock for your suggestion. Used them a couple times in the past. Good guys for sure. Probably just go there.
I wonder if that's the same tool I have then? I did have a quick google for a deflection meter and couldn't find anything that's different to what I have. I have a knock off version of the Park tool TM-1 which does the job for the occasional home user.
Anyway I'm looking forward to getting the wheels sorted as they were pretty awesome to ride on. Transformed the bike! Thanks all
I have this issue with 'underbuilt' wheels.
I've got some Stans Alpha* rims with 20/24 DT 2.0/1.5/2.0 spokes for the road bike, and despite being built *perfectly* they will occasionally randomly lose a nipple. They just flex so far that they become unloaded however carefully you build them.
Same with some 24h Stans Crest on my gravel bike which came to <1600g.
*the original even lighter version, the whole wheelset is ~1250g including skewers!
so thought I would just tension the wheels up as much as I dare and if they broke, no real loss as I couldn’t ride them as they were.
This was the eventual solution, I went about 10-15% higher than the max recommended by stans on the drive side, and added threadlock. Since then they've been fine.
Propper factory wheels like Shimano or Fulcrum don't seem to have these issues, I suspect having measured their spoke tension it's because they design them as a system so the rims get reinforced, the flange widths are optimized etc. And properly specified handbills are fine. It generally seems to just be either under-specified hand builds or machine built from disparate parts (i.e. the mish mash DT rim, Sapin spoke, formula hub type wheels you get OEM).
Got it back from the shop last week. Yet to test ride them but all seem fine. The mechanic seemed to reckon the rims were made by Spank (and therefore the hub too?) and mentioned the lacing pattern was different on both sides...something I failed to spot even when @Fueled mentioned the same thing. Nipples also got thread locked apparently.
If they are Spank I think these are the closest match. Pretty old and don't appear to make them anymore but they are listed in their FAQ section for wheel building. I haven't got the NS wheels next to me to compare...but maybe?
https://enduro-mtb.com/en/the-review-the-spank-oozy-trail-295-wheelset/