Be honest about the spokes….

[camardelle]

Are they a concern? I keep reading about having to tighten them and I saw one post somewhere where someone was selling their bike and including a bag of spokes with the sale. Be honest, is it an issue?

 

[Dogdaze]

No, not an issue. It is something to be looked at as an maintenance item for at least the first 1-2k miles of a new bike until they bed/ seat in.. It also mentions this as part of the service items in the manual. Mine have corroded with some kind of film, not rust, just a film, I also think this helps ::008::
Some have zip tied the spokes in case of a nipple coming loose and 'flailing' the spoke around causing superficial damage to the shaft housing. There are numerous threads on the best ways to check for loose spokes, including the 'ping' test. But really, after the first few thousand miles just check them every oil change or whatever makes you feel comfortable, I check them every few months and only ever had to tighten a few spokes once. Also, this is mostly the rear spokes issue.

 

[RandG]

Yes. I lost a spoke, fair enough I didn't check them enough. While on my first day of my holiday, I lost another, close to where the other was after having checked them not long before I left.

A few days later my wheel was buckled, cost me a new set of spokes and a full reknit.

 

[Brick]

I wouldn't consider this an "issue". It's just a product of spokes. Each time I change a tire I "ping" them with a wrench. If the tone is flat I adjust that spoke. At 30,000 mile I hardly find any that need adjusting. But I just still check. It's just good policy and not a difficult thing.

YMMV.......... ::021::

 

[rider33]

I view this as sort of a break-in thing. Spokes have been around for a very long time. Most tho are sort of held in place by the pressure of the tube. As the S10 has them above the rim to go tubeless, they sort of need to seat in a bit when first in use. Trying to see how big a rock you can jump in the first few hundred miles likely will not help that, taking it easy ala-breakin procedures likely will. You can break spokes, particularly early on. For a bike that spends most of it's life on the road tho, spokes are likely less of a risk than dealing with a flat tire on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere on a 500 ib++ touring bike. The ablity to plug a tubeless tire is a beutiful thing. Its also alot easier to replace a spoke than to repair a bent/cracked/deformed cast wheel should you like to play in the rough stuff.

 

[caillou]

As said above, I checked after the first 1 or 2K and then at tire change, it is not an issue. I do not rely on pinging anymore: last time I did it, everything sounded good but when checked with a small torque wrench, it was not. Since I have adjusted tension with a torque wrench.p, nothing has moved and no adjustment necessary. So pinging can warn you about a lose spoke but should not be used to adjust tension.

 

[JRE]

Based on recommendations from others (Fredz43 being one), I zip tied my spokes where they intersect so that if one does come loose, it mitigates the chances of it flying loose and tearing things up. I've checked mine a few times and with 2600 mi I've only found 2 that were slightly loose (no danger of coming undone).

 

[roy]

I had no less than 10 on the rear come loose early on but had my wheel re-trued by a local wheel expert and no more problems. Contacted Yamaha about it and they said if it happened again to return the bike to the dealer and they'd replace the wheel. Dealer was involved with the contact at Yamaha and vouched for the guy I used to re-true the wheel stating that's who they'd use anyway. I just happen to know the guy personally.

36k miles later and I might have had one slightly loose on a check. I don't think the wheels come from the factory properly adjusted at the spokes.

 

[EricV]

It's a preventative maintenance thing. Check the spokes at 600 miles, it's part of the service then, but gets ignored by many. Check it fairly often, depending on the length of your rides, for the first few thousand miles. If you do a lot of short rides, check it every 500 miles. If you do longer rides, check it every ride or couple of rides until your first regular oil change. After that, you usually will not find one loose enough to stress about, but you will still find some that will take a 1/4 turn or even 1/2 turn, using a torque wrench to tighten to spec. I still check at every oil change, (5k for me), but haven't found a loose one in a very long time.

I zip tied at the spoke cross over points. That way if a spoke does come loose, it can't flop around. If you choose to do this, don't snug the zip ties up on the spokes, this can actually aggravate the problem, just loose around the two spokes is fine. You're not trying to tighten them together, just capture them so they don't flop if the nipple comes off and is lost.

When there is an opportunity, buy a few spokes from a forum member that has them for sale. If I recall correctly, there are 4 different lengths, so it's nice to score one or two of each length and keep those in your kit in case they are ever needed.

 

[trainman]

the dealer where I bought told me that spokes are checked every 3000 miles on the schedule, making the point that a dealer service was every 6000, so its down to me to do the intermediates,

but he said you might find one early on and then once run in, they are very unlikely to come loose unless you have a serious knock

 

[Rasher]

22k with no loose spokes, but my "off-road" adventures have been no more than the odd dirt / gravel track.

I too have the "corrosion" starting to creep in, from a distance they still look good, but close up they are a bit tarnished in places, rest of the bike still looks like new.

 

[yz454]

At 1100 miles loose spokes one nipple gone . Replaced the nipple with yz one , tighten spokes . At 67k not another problem cents . That,s with more than the average off road use .

 

[Scouse]

At about 1000 miles I had a rear spoke come loose and flop about causing minor damage to my hugger. It appears that the dealer had not checked them at the 600 mile service. The rear wheel was totally rebuilt using new spokes. No problems since, now at 5000 miles. I do check them with a long allen key every 500 miles or so.

 

[E.Engler]

20,000 miles without issue. I do check them during tire changes because its convenient on the balancing stand.

 

[GrahamD]

5 years, no problems.

 

[Rasher]

Don't forget when asking a question like this the small percentage of folk who have had an issue are more likely to chime in than the vast majority who have not.

Also prevention seems pretty simple, and the cost to fix in the unlikely event of a spoke breaking is quite low...

...The tarnishing is something your probably going to have to expect unless you are one of these people that spends more time cleaning your bike than you do riding it, again not a massively expensive fix, if mine ever start looking quite ugly I would just get the wheels re-laced - at current rate of tarnishing that is unlikely to be before it is about 8 years old with 50k on the clock - by which time I probably won't care about the cosmetics quite so much anyway.

 

[cakeboy]

I have a 2014 2 nd gen model , I've always looked after my spokes from new covering them vasoline after cleaning them however even they are starting to pit and they have seen no road salt at all . so Yamaha have done nothing to improve the new model have they ?

 

[caillou]

Have you tried to cover those with mud and dust?

 

[iClint]

Mine sees more dirt than Tarmac and with ~5,000km's I've had no issues with the spokes.

 

[squarebore]

32000kms and no priblems