Over the weekend I was doing some hill training and while climbing I kept hearing some “ping ping” sounds coming from the rear wheel with every crank rotation. The wheels are newish (1.5 months old) Easton Tempest IIs with a campy centaur cassette - I was turning it over in the 34 ring in the front and the 23 in the rear…
FWIW I’m about 245 lbs so about 265 lbs total including the bike was being cranked up the hill…
I havent crashed the rear wheel and it doesnt seem out of true…
It is the torque on the spokes under load from you pedaling and the lateral load on the spokes from your weight. There are only 20 spokes in the rear wheel and 18 in the front, for a total of 38 spokes holding you up, and transferring torque to the rear wheel in order to get you up the hill. It’s a lot of stress for that few amount of spokes, so when they are under that much load and move, they ping. Many guys your size ride 36 spokes per wheel. If you increase spokes or remove weight, the pings will go away.
I suspect the pinging is coming from the derailleur cage hitting the spokes.
You are no doubt in your lowest gear, climbing up the hill. The low gear limit on your rear derailleur is set too low, and as a result, hitting the spokes. The limit needs to be increased enough so that you can still get in your low gear, but so that the derailleur is not hitting the spokes.
Park Tools has detailed instructions how to do this on their website.
It is a minor adjustment (just don’t turn the screw the wrong way and make the problem worse!). You risk breaking a spoke if you do not fix this.
When I was 225lbs I heard something similar to what you describe. It turned out to be spoke related as the rear hub on a Alex wheel (330 I think) broke and a spoke and the one next to it came loose just as I crested a 35 min climb. I had been hearing that pinging and brought it to my LBS and they said it was spoke tension related, fiddled with it and sent me on my way. The next week ping…ping…PONG!
Thanks i’ll check again tonight to see if there is any rubbing which could be the case since the bike is still new (1.5 months…)
I called Easton and they said that I should have no problems at my weight on those wheels. According to them, the aero rims and the direct spoking result in a strong wheel - they currently have some clydes doing crits on them right now and havent run into any problems…
It is the torque on the spokes under load from you pedaling and the lateral load on the spokes from your weight
So are you saying that the sound is normal? I’m riding Rolf Vector Pros that only have 16 spokes (but I only weigh 135 lbs), and I always get that noise when I’m climbing. I have checked the spokes (just be feel, I do not have a tensionmeter) and none appears to be loose. I know it has nothing to do with the derailleur because the noise is there even when I’m using a 34-21 or 34-19 combination.
I had a very similar issue on a set on bontrager race x lite aeros. They (trek tech guys) said it was coming from the bladed spokes twisting slightly when put under load while climbing. The fix was to take off the tires and rim tape, clean the insertion point of each spoke and then lube them. Its been a week and the ping is remains gone.
Take the wheel and strum the spokes, see if the dull /low tone spoke is at the true part of the wheel . If so ,you or your mech. give all the spokes 1/4 or 1/2 turn tighter.
Well from my experience a ping is created when a spoke turns in the nipple, or when the nipple and spoke both turn in the rim.
Spokes turning in the nipple is usually a result of spoke windup (poor build, or poorly relieved), the nipple galling in the rim, or heavy weighting and un-weighting of the spokes, so that the spoke and the nipple together or one or the other independently turns. So if you have a lot of windup in the spokes, the spoke will turn in the nipple and ping. But spoke windup isn’t chronic. Normally the pings go away after a few hundred meters of riding, with no ill effects. If it is a poor build, excessive pinging will usually leave an untrue wheel.
Lateral stress won’t go away, and if you have a lot of lateral stress (weight pushing down while the bike is leaned) and a lot of windup from the hub, you will get a ping from either the spoke or the nipple moving. I’m pretty sure that Velomax uses thread compound on their nipples, which locks the nipple to the spoke. So I would imagine the nipple is probably moving in the rim with the spoke.
Regardless, it isn’t going to just go away. Either the wheel will be unbuilt and re-tensioned, or the wheel will come out of round or true, or there will eventually be a failure. When it fails is just a function of stress load and number of cycles.
I called Easton and they said that I should have no problems at my weight on those wheels. According to them, the aero rims and the direct spoking result in a strong wheel - they currently have some clydes doing crits on them right now and havent run into any problems…
True but most of the people I see using them for criterium racing, are running on Tempest II carbon wheels which reduces spoke length nearly 3cms! I also have a set of Tempest II clinchers which I used to be my primary road training/race wheels (use Am Class CR-350’s now) and at 6’/170 pounds, I was able to make the spokes/wheel ping during long climbs in the big ring! Although I have managed to break spokes on two separate occasions (first one was my fault, snagged a moderate size rock for the second), I do agree that the wheels are pretty bomb proof but personally, for climbing, I found the combination of my 03’ Giant TCR Team Composite and Tempest II clinchers to be a little to noodly under heavy acceleration and hard climbing! I think that depending on what frame you are riding, I might be in agreement with the others that in your case, a 32 or 36 hole rear wheel might be a better choice for rides/races that involve a lot of climbing.