Be honest about the spokes….

[Marty]

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?

In my experience even checking them ever other fuel stop, torquing the loose spokes with a a torque wrench, to Yamaha's exact specs, are not enough to keep multiple spokes from breaking or coming loose even under light duty use.

In other words this is not a maintenance issue. If it were a maintenance issue then maintenance would prevent repeated failures on a bike that is used in light to moderate duty. This is not the case. IMO the wheels are defective by design.

Is this a reason not to buy the bike? IMO no. All bikes have some design weaknesses and the S-10 has far less than most. I zip tie the rear spokes together and carry extra spokes with me.

 

[Brick]

::026::
Ramseybella,
Yea, I had put some blue locktite on the threads. I will be doing that again AND marking them this way to be able to see if they move. I at the time do not have a 1/4" torque wrench... but I think it's on the shopping list now.
BTW... I've had a torque wrench for years and have no idea where I can get it checked to see if it's anywhere near correct... got suggestions where I should look. I do live in the boonies.
Thanks

When my rear wheel came unglued when the new spokes had a drop of blue loctite on the spoke threads.
Sort of a Lazy mans way but I marked them with a sharpie and watched the lines to see if the adjuster mark moved to the left on each spoke mark, noting.
Most likely use a little black model paint when it comes off.
From what I was told these rims are made by D.I.D for Yamaha.

 

[Ramseybella]

::026::
Ramseybella,
Yea, I had put some blue locktite on the threads. I will be doing that again AND marking them this way to be able to see if they move. I at the time do not have a 1/4" torque wrench... but I think it's on the shopping list now.
BTW... I've had a torque wrench for years and have no idea where I can get it checked to see if it's anywhere near correct... got suggestions where I should look. I do live in the boonies.
Thanks

I am going to use some paint that will stick to Stainless soon as I got the rim back from Woody and didn't apply the same technique.
But I have not seen any movement so far.

 

[Fpalbrecht]

I'm not going to go over board with tightening. The ping test is fine for me. If I need to tighten I will use this. Park Tool 6nm torque wrench. I added a craftsman extension. My torque wrench was meant for much higher values. The bicycle community because of carbon fiber has to be extra careful with fasteners. This test report was what made me pick this tool. I think it will be much more accurate than a "normal" torque wrench for this value.
http://www.bikeradar.com/us/road/gear/article/best-torque-wrench-for-bicycle-grouptest-46517/

 

[Checkswrecks]

Loose tie-wraps or safety wire will keep a loose spoke from doing damage.

 

[greg the pole]

lost two spokes at the 20 k km mark.
Since then, some low hold green loctite, and cross tied with zip ties.
79k km, zero issues

scroll down the blog for a write up
https://thetenerist.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/fork-rebuild-v2-0-steering-head-grease-up-and-front-rim-grease-spoke-tigtening/

 

[Dogdaze]

I have a question that I tried to find answer to, but here goes. I have a new S10 with 5 miles on the odo, I do not believe that it was PDI'd correctly (I will get to that later), my question is this, should I check each spoke for the correct torque adjustment before I ride it or wait a few miles? This is based on the fact that I will zip tie the spokes anyway.

 

[WJBertrand]

Spokes are probably fine on a brand new bike. I don't think checking them is part of the initial dealer set up or anything. I'm hearing to check them at the 600 mile service.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[VRODE]

I have a question that I tried to find answer to, but here goes. I have a new S10 with 5 miles on the odo, I do not believe that it was PDI'd correctly (I will get to that later), my question is this, should I check each spoke for the correct torque adjustment before I ride it or wait a few miles? This is based on the fact that I will zip tie the spokes anyway.

I checked mine at 400 miles. Then after the 600 mi. service. Nothing loose, only 2-3 were not quite at torque spec. After that I checked 'em at 2500 and 5000 mi. No issues. I will be checking them at every oil change from now on.

Disclaimer: I don't do any off road bashing. If I did I'd probably check them more frequently.