check your spokes before every ride, among another million things lol. just work on your bike for 8 hours, stay home cause it's dark out by the time you're done lol
You can easily torque spokes by feel and sound. You can true the rear wheel by using the swing arm. You can do the front wheel by attaching a zip tie to the fork and cutting it to length. Torquing them to spec only works when the wheel is new. It is much more accurate to go by sound once the threads are dirty. If you do hard enduro that dont take long especially after some mud or creek crossings. Then after your threads are nice and stiff from dirt and grit they wont loosen up very often. Just get a nice ting that doesnt sound to high strung.
Huh? When turning the nipple left you "loosen it", but it gets tighter cus the spoke draws the rim inwards. So that would make it a standard right hand thread
I had 1 spoke break. I fixed it. I just had 2 more break. I have warp 9 sm wheels on a WR250R. What can I do to fix this problem? I tension the spokes by the sound test and by feel I’d say the are 3-4ft/lbs. I try not to over tighten them at all. Thanks.
Great Video. I was surprised how many spokes needed tightened. That was just on the back wheel. I haven't even started on the front wheel. My assumption is the process is the same as the back and you tighten in the same direction? I used the Warp 9 torque wrench I purchased from Rocky Mountain ATV MC and works great.
I have tried everything under the sun. My wheels always come true but with loose spokes. I have followed this to the t with a spoke wrench. Anytime I tighten it up it become unbelievably out of true. What is the secret? Torque on the nipple DOES NOT translate directly to spoke tension. That is because the friction between each nipple is not the same due to differing angles and dirt. There HAS to be a more professional way. Please help.
True. I would suggest using lube to set into the nipple threads to try to even the playing field. It will lessen the effect of dirt. The dirt may be more evenly spread around the wheel so perhaps it will effect most the same way.
I have a question on spoke torque. I have a 2001 kx250 and my service manual say to tighten the spoke to 13 in. lbs. that just seems really low to me and I can't find a torque wrench that goes that low. What do you think?
+Pepe Soriano The Kawasaki manual does specify 13 in. lbs. For Yamaha's it say's to torque at 26 in. lbs. The industry standard i would say is 48 in. lbs. for a "big bike". I would recommend that torque spec for your machine.
With the tusk torque wrench can you just tighten every 4th spoke straight to say 45 in lbs. or should you still do 1/4 inch turns till the torque wrench says you hit 45?
Any suppliers in the U.K. for the Spoke Torque Wrench? Cheers On a serious note, a guy at a track I practice on bought a new bike, never checked his spokes. He came in front end heavy on a small triple and his front wheel folded,,,,, he was paralysed from the chest down 😢.
*DirtRipper* Yikes. Thanks for sharing. Goes to show bike maintenance is important. No sorry. We don't have suppliers in the U.K. but you can email us at: sales@rockymountainatv.com and we can get you a shipping quote, delivered to your door step! Thanks
I just received the Tusk torque wrench. I want to check my spokes on my KTM 1290SA. Specifications for the bike is 45 inch/lbs. My question is that if the torque wrench already clics without even turning the nipple, should I back it out and then come back to the correct tension (clic)? I want to make sure they are all at 45 inch/lbs. If I turn back, could this throw off the truing of the wheel?
If you do every third spoke (which it is, it is not "fourth") as in the video, on a typical 36-spoke (front) wheel you will arrive at the initial spoke after one full rotation. You then need to shift by 1 spoke and so on. It is easier if you pick a number that's mutually prime to the number of spokes (e.g. 5) and keep tightening every fifth spoke. Then you will only ever arrive at the initial spoke after you've tightened ALL the spokes. Incidentally, 5 is mutually prime to both 36 (typical front wheel number of spokes) and 32 (typical back wheel number of spokes).
Pinging is a method i've never tried. I feel like it would be really hard to know, but hey, if it works for you then go for it. No, it does not need to be off the ground, but it does make it much easier being able to rotate the wheel.
Good eye there *Kawasakimoon88*. We put on new sprockets for the video.. and geared the bike down for trail riding. Forgot to button that one up :) Thanks.
I think I'm missing something. You start of by doing number one (1), skip two (2) and do the fourth (4) one. Great. After that you keep skipping two (2) and do the fourth (4) one! Lol! What happened to number three (3)? If you skip two (2) and then tighten, you are actually tightening every third (3) one. I can't believe nobody else noticed. Otherwise, great video.
Once you've tightened the first spoke, by skipping two spokes you then tighten the 4th spoke. So if you started on the first spoke after the valve stem like we did here, after tightening the first spoke and skipping two, your next spoke would be the fourth from the valve stem. Another way to describe it is tighten every third spoke from the last one tightened. So if you tighten the first (after the valve stem) and count three spokes and tighten the third, it would be the same as skipping 2. Hope this helps.
Jay L Sorry to hear they went loose on ya. Were you using a spoke torque wrench or a regular spoke wrench? Some wheels tend to loosen up quicker than others so its important to keep up on them! Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks for watching
ahh what good advice, ok say you, and I really mean I, tightened your/my spokes but did it one by one, retarded I know but, is this easier to throw it off true quicker, and how much does that spoke torque wrench run?
