December 2, 201411 yr I've had a spoke come loose a couple of times on the front hub motor wheel of my Brompton Nano. Tightened it myself each time, although I don't claim to know anything about wheel building. With this in mind, I asked my bike mechanic mate to give it the once over - he's about the only person I would trust near my bikes with a spoke key. He explained that the spokes on the wheel don't cross in the traditional wheelbuilder's sense, in that they don't touch at the cross. This touching helps prevent the spokes from unwinding in use. With that in mind, he said he would nip the spokes up on my wheel a bit tighter than he would for a traditional wheel. What surprised me was the handling of the bike definitely improved, the steering felt less 'Brompton twitchy' and the bike tracked along the road straighter than before. I've no idea if a little wheel like the Brompton's is more or less sensitive to spoke tension than a bigger one, but I think the moral of the story is keep your spokes tight.
December 2, 201411 yr I had a spoke fail on the rear wheel last week, but it was one I had tightened up to try and straighten the wheel, which was quite old and squiffy. As a result of that one spoke being a lot tighter it snapped when I was riding on rough ground. Lesson learned: keep spoke tensions even. I put too much load on that one spoke.
December 2, 201411 yr A smaller wheel, at least on a recumbent trike is much stiffer that a larger one, it shows because of the massive side load when hammering corners. Having said that I always run my spokes on the tight side, just checked my factory 16" trike wheels and yep they are tighter than normal as well, very high note when plucked.
December 3, 201411 yr A smaller wheel, at least on a recumbent trike is much stiffer that a larger one, it shows because of the massive side load when hammering corners. Having said that I always run my spokes on the tight side, just checked my factory 16" trike wheels and yep they are tighter than normal as well, very high note when plucked. do they go 'plink' or 'plonk'?
December 4, 201411 yr All you need to know about the black art of wheelbuilding, spokes nipples, rims etc.http://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html The are also several good videos covering the subject to found on Youtube. Slightly of topic, this might make a good Christmas stocking filler....if your legs are a somewhat unusual shape http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Bike-Book-Complete-Maintenance/dp/0857331183
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