New rear Hed Alps wheel and it is making an awful creaking noise? any ideas? It only happens when I pedal, I am about 168lbs so don’t think weight is the issue here. Do the spokes need tightening?
Weeman
Tighten the quick release levers – tighter than you need to on most wheels. That did the trick for me.
Bob C.
Indeed—I’ve experienced the same noises and tightened up the release…no more noise. It does sound like your whole front end is about to break into a bazillion pieces, so you’re right to be concerned but if typical it’s not a big deal.
How tight are we talking here? Right now they seem tight, it almost sounds like the spokes are rubbing on each other or on the carbon?
Weeman
We had an alps-wheelset that had the same problem… after overhauling the hubs, lubing all nipples, greasin q/r’s, etc, the problem did not go away. It still sounded like a popcorn maker or “Chinese New Year” going down the street.
So, we sent it back to HED where they completely dis-assembled the wheels and rebuilt them again to their spec’s… they found that the problem was in the holes on the carbon fairing. The holes were a tad to small for the spoke to flex through. The technician drilled each hole alittle bigger to give the spoke flexion enough “lee-way”. Now the sound is gone.
(HED’s technical service was great and that made the client and us very very happy, by the way)