Wheel ticks intermittently

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
When I got my bike a week in it sounded terrible. Found a couple loose spokes on the rear motor wheel, tightened them to match the rest and retrued and it went away. Now it's back so I did the same process but it still won't bugger off, I even lubed the nipples (hehe) and between the spokes a little. Now what? It's on and off, gets worse when the motor kicks in and seems to happen once per revolution. All spokes are nice and tight as far as I can tell, but don't want to meddle further as I only have experience of minor truing etc and don't want to make it an oval lol

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Nealh

Esteemed Pedelecer
Aug 7, 2014
20,158
8,236
60
West Sx RH
If it has discs check the rotor is straight .
 

E-Wheels

Pedelecer
Aug 16, 2016
227
103
Check the nut on the valve stem
 

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
Check the nut on the valve stem
Doesn't have one it's a schrader valve. Now that the oil has had time to work into the spokes it seems to have settled down a bit. It's still there but it's not nearly as annoying, not sure how to eliminate it completely

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Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
19,553
16,483
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
you may have a lost spoke nipple between the double wall.
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
19,553
16,483
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
One click per revolution can come from a faulty pawl in the freewheel or from one spoke or one nipple.
turn the bike upside down and spin the wheel in the forward direction slowly to hear where the noise comes from. You'll get a better idea.
 

Gringo

Esteemed Pedelecer
Jun 18, 2013
1,333
835
Northampton
Been there, done that & know how you feal ;)
it sounded like a nail or pebble stuck to the tyre just ticking against the ground once per revolution :mad:
I swaped front & back tyres/tubes and even made small PTFE (plastic) discs too go between the spokes where they cross each other, no luck :(
As I had 2 sets of wheel/tyres (on & off road) I just lived with it.
Eventually I converted the bike to Internal hub gears with a new rear wheel, the pr of wheels with the click shoved into storage & forgotten.

2 years later I build an analog bike from my spare parts and some eBay wins. 100 pleasurable miles and I start to hear a familiar sound :mad:
I read on line about nipple oiling and after seeing some doggy images (some twice ;)) I found the cure was one drip of oil on each end of each spoke (inc the spoke to hub end). If that hadn't worked I would have stripped, cleaned & regressed the hub bearings, it's not a difficult job but as I'm getting older I'm getting lazier ;)
Sorry I don't have an easy answer for you but I did have a half hour to kill before I go swimming:cool:
 

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
One click per revolution can come from a faulty pawl in the freewheel or from one spoke or one nipple.
turn the bike upside down and spin the wheel in the forward direction slowly to hear where the noise comes from. You'll get a better idea.
Could be the freewheel, perhaps my wheel tweaks are just coinciding with when the noise decides to hush for a bit, wpuld be just my luck haha. Unfortunately it only makes the noise with weight on it so that test won't help, should have mentioned that

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anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
Been there, done that & know how you feal ;)
it sounded like a nail or pebble stuck to the tyre just ticking against the ground once per revolution :mad:
I swaped front & back tyres/tubes and even made small PTFE (plastic) discs too go between the spokes where they cross each other, no luck :(
As I had 2 sets of wheel/tyres (on & off road) I just lived with it.
Eventually I converted the bike to Internal hub gears with a new rear wheel, the pr of wheels with the click shoved into storage & forgotten.

2 years later I build an analog bike from my spare parts and some eBay wins. 100 pleasurable miles and I start to hear a familiar sound :mad:
I read on line about nipple oiling and after seeing some doggy images (some twice ;)) I found the cure was one drip of oil on each end of each spoke (inc the spoke to hub end). If that hadn't worked I would have stripped, cleaned & regressed the hub bearings, it's not a difficult job but as I'm getting older I'm getting lazier ;)
Sorry I don't have an easy answer for you but I did have a half hour to kill before I go swimming:cool:
For me it can be quite loud, like a pinging spoke sound (had this before on a mtb, oil fixed it) aready done the oil thing and it has improved for now but it tends to go away on its own from time to time. Are the motor bearings an easy job?

Edit: Noticed you said the hub end too, haven't done that yet that could be it! [emoji106]

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D

Deleted member 4366

Guest
There's no problem with the motor. You're worrying unnecessarily.
 

anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
There's no problem with the motor. You're worrying unnecessarily.
Probably. I'll find the noise and kill it eventually, its more of an annoyance than anything, almost distracting when it gets loud

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anon4

Esteemed Pedelecer
May 9, 2017
574
90
32
GB
Well my bike is now silent, seems the oil did do the trick in the end. Thanks for all the suggestions

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