I bought an Instinct in Ocotober, and it came with hand built Mavic 221s. I took the bike out for about 3 to 5 rides before I noticed the rear wheel was out of true.

Upon closer inspection, the nipples on about 6 spokes weren't tight at all!! Most of the threads were showing on those nipples :mad: There were a few other spokes that also had next to NO tension on them. After spending about half an hour on my friend's wheel stand, we had a straight wheel with fairly even tension across all the spokes. Then I swapped these wheels for a set of Rhyno Lites, and put these wheels on my beater.

I took my beater out on a ride today with this wheelset, and I think I hopped a curb wrong, and the rear wheel hit the curb a little bit sideways going about 5 km/h; now the rear wheel is warped because it is rubbing on the brake pads. A quick tension check shows 4 or 5 spokes have no tension on them again!!

Did this wheel just slip out of Rocky Mountain's quality control, or is it normal for nipples on a wheel with poor tension to work itself all the way down, exposing most of the thread on the spoke??

I called Dukes today, and the service manager pretty much implied I was an idiot for having this problem, and tried to blame everything on me. After being treated like this, and got a $1200 quote for a F100X, I really dont think I will be buying anything from that store again....

:rolleyes:

Ming

I believe it is normal for spokes to loosen over time, I've had nips loosen on me, just not on my factory Rocky wheels. Now while the bike is new to you, I wouldn't be surprised if it had a few miles on it from demo rides over the last couple of years. Try some loctite on nipples that have worked loose.

Regarding the Fox, $1200 sounds like MSRP. I believe the fork is about 940 on bikeroom.com, which is almost always lower than shop prices. Furthermore, I'd never buy of Fox online, I'd want to have a good relationship with the shop I bought it from as I've heard they are not the most reliable forks in the world.

My Rocky (Wheelsmith built) wheels went for two years until they needed truing - and even then they really weren't too far off. I've heard mostly good things about Rocky's wheels. I think your experience is uncommon.

Duke's is considered a good shop - I'm surprised they're blowing you off. At the very least the shop should true and tension the wheel for you gratis.

My Rocky (Wheelsmith built) wheels went for two years until they needed truing - and even then they really weren't too far off. I've heard mostly good things about Rocky's wheels. I think your experience is uncommon.

Duke's is considered a good shop - I'm surprised they're blowing you off. At the very least the shop should true and tension the wheel for you gratis.

It could be a newbie wheel tech who built the wheel. Personally, I dont care that much about the wheel being poorly built. It was more of finger pointing that annoys me. I really want to find out if riding a poorly built wheel will work most of the nipples all the way down the thread.

I will go and get the wheel trued at my LBS because Dukes is all the way in Toronto. :)

It could be a newbie wheel tech who built the wheel. Personally, I dont care that much about the wheel being poorly built. It was more of finger pointing that annoys me. I really want to find out if riding a poorly built wheel will work most of the nipples all the way down the thread.

I will go and get the wheel trued at my LBS because Dukes is all the way in Toronto. :)

For the answer regarding nipples backing themselves off, I'd post the question in the Wheels forum. But - it doesn't sound likely to me.

It hapened to me years ago when I bought a Concorde MTB. And half of the people who bought the same bike as me in my town had the problem too (I worked in the shop that sold them). I must have trued my own wheels 10 times before the owner of the shop (who was an idiot but I didn't know it at the time) said, "try putting some of that extra-light oil on the threads before you re-tension it."

Well, I did it, and it worked. Spokes never came loose again on that bike. I figure the wheel building shop in Taiwan had not lubed the spokes, or not lubed them enough.

And after a few years building wheels at another shop I found that, yes indeed, dry spokes become loose spokes very quickly. I'm not sure why this is - maybe the oil dampens vibrations???

Anyhoo, when you're gonna retension the wheel get some superlight oil - like sewing machine oil - and put a drop at the insertion point of each spoke into the nipple. I usually like to give the wheel a spin in the truing stand to pull the oil out into the nipple, but I don't think it really helps much.

After that, tighten your spokes up good and tight and you're on your way!

It hapened to me years ago when I bought a Concorde MTB. And half of the people who bought the same bike as me in my town had the problem too (I worked in the shop that sold them). I must have trued my own wheels 10 times before the owner of the shop (who was an idiot but I didn't know it at the time) said, "try putting some of that extra-light oil on the threads before you re-tension it."

Well, I did it, and it worked. Spokes never came loose again on that bike. I figure the wheel building shop in Taiwan had not lubed the spokes, or not lubed them enough.

And after a few years building wheels at another shop I found that, yes indeed, dry spokes become loose spokes very quickly. I'm not sure why this is - maybe the oil dampens vibrations???

Anyhoo, when you're gonna retension the wheel get some superlight oil - like sewing machine oil - and put a drop at the insertion point of each spoke into the nipple. I usually like to give the wheel a spin in the truing stand to pull the oil out into the nipple, but I don't think it really helps much.

After that, tighten your spokes up good and tight and you're on your way!

It's counter-intuitive, isn't it? You'd think that lubricated spokes would come loose, not dry ones. Maybe it's because it's harder to get even tension when the threads are dry.
Regardless, I haven't built a "dry" wheel to compare - on the few I've done I used anti-sieze on both the threads and the outside of the nipple.

It could be a newbie wheel tech who built the wheel. :)

Actually most of rocky's wheels are machine built. The only human element is the guys who inspect them and them apply a random sticker to them that was signed by someone. A friend of mine worked at rocky in the wheeltech division for a few years and knows all the gimmicks they employ.

Rocky's wheels are not that great a build, the wheels on my slayer, that were apparently hand built needed constant attention, with loose spokes and then broken spokes I replaced about half of the rear spokes then decided to get a whole new wheel, no problems since

If the wheels were in fact built by hand, they are very careless hands

I just bought an '05 ETSX. When I first rode it the wheels felt dead and super flexy. I checked the spoke tension with my tension meter. The tightest spokes were only 2/3 of what they should have been (were 80 lbf, should be about 120lbf) and loosest spokes were 1/3 of what they should be (40 lbf). Since then I took the wheels apart and handbuilt then properly. What a difference in ride! Spoke tension is now +/- 10% with an average tension of 110 lbf.

At one time, years ago, they did handbuild the wheels. That time is long past. Now its hand inspected and that's about it. And they're only inspecting that the wheels are true when they go on the bikes, not that they're properly tensioned and stress relieved.

At one time rocky also overhauled every hub, headset, and bottom bracket bearing themselves, replacing stock greases with white lithium grease as it worked better in wet environments like BC's lower mainland area. They did this when assembling the bikes. They've stopped doing that also. The care and quality rocky built their rep on just hasn't been there for quite some time.

I have had to retension other's Rocky built wheels too.

My ETSX was one of the worst assembled bikes I have ever had to reassemble, I take apart all new bikes and put them back together just as a piece of mind that everyhting is assembled, lubed and torqued to correct specs. They are also very expensive for the part spec you get, but I absolutely love the way this bike rides....so I will have to suck it up.

I have had to retension other's Rocky built wheels too.

My ETSX was one of the worst assembled bikes I have ever had to reassemble, I take apart all new bikes and put them back together just as a piece of mind that everyhting is assembled, lubed and torqued to correct specs. They are also very expensive for the part spec you get, but I absolutely love the way this bike rides....so I will have to suck it up.

I love how my bike rides. So a bad wheel is not going to steer me away from the brand :D

I have had to retension other's Rocky built wheels too.

My ETSX was one of the worst assembled bikes I have ever had to reassemble, I take apart all new bikes and put them back together just as a piece of mind that everyhting is assembled, lubed and torqued to correct specs. They are also very expensive for the part spec you get, but I absolutely love the way this bike rides....so I will have to suck it up.

You wouldn't happen to have a friend in Barrie ont with an etsx-70 would you. Your post sounds realy familliar. And yes the rocky mountain wheels are not very well tensioned are they thats why I got my cross max.

Sure am Johnny!

at least thats what they say

You wouldn't happen to have a friend in Barrie ont with an etsx-70 would you. Your post sounds realy familliar. And yes the rocky mountain wheels are not very well tensioned are they thats why I got my cross max.

I'm originally from Barrie Ont and bought all my stuff at Bike Land.... Morgan was a great guy to deal with.
I've only been a westcoaster for a year now and will NOT go back to Barrie...EVER!!!! :D.
I first lived in Letitia heights ( $hit hole of an area actually) then moved the the east side by the college on Buchanan St.
I rode the rails trail to Orillia and back many times .

Sounds like the wheel wasn't detensioned properly. My guess is that when you rode around you heard the spokes ping here and there. When you build a wheel you are supposed to detension constantly. Some guys one do it a few times for a given wheel. I do mine every 1/8th to 1/4 turn. Your spokes just untwisted and since they had no tension on them the vibration of your riding helped them become looser. Honestly, your bike shop should have taken care of this, no questions asked.

One month ago I wrote Rocky a complaint letter about how poorly they assembled my bike (nothing was put on the bike properly, maybe they used one of the workers from their CCM factory to assemble mine) and how shitty the wheels were. I left them two phone numbers to conatct me as well as my return address. As of last night I still hadn't heard from them, so I gave them a call. The seemed to be concerned about how pissed I was. I specifically told them the sticker on my wheels had "Jason's" name on them, as well as I have had to fix other wheels "Jason" has made. Who made your wheels?

One month ago I wrote Rocky a complaint letter about how poorly they assembled my bike (nothing was put on the bike properly, maybe they used one of the workers from their CCM factory to assemble mine) and how shitty the wheels were. I left them two phone numbers to conatct me as well as my return address. As of last night I still hadn't heard from them, so I gave them a call. The seemed to be concerned about how pissed I was. I specifically told them the sticker on my wheels had "Jason's" name on them, as well as I have had to fix other wheels "Jason" has made. Who made your wheels?

Jason W bulit the wheel as well. I called Rocky and complained about the poor quality work. I took it to my local shop, and they retensioned the wheel VERY well :D

If this wheel works out well, I may end up swapping it back onto my Rocky :)

Cheers

Ming

I knew there was a post in here at one time about some problems with the Rocky wheels. This afternoon I got to finally ride my relacement ETS-X frame and mly buddy show's up in a new 05 ETS-X 70. This bike was out for it's fourth ride and we hit our local bike trail. My friend was complaining how wobbly the rear end felt and sure enough all of the spokes were so loose that you could turn most of them for allmost two complete turns with your own hands. The front wheel was fine. I could not believe how terrible this wheel was. Perhaps they forgot to coat the threads with thread prep.

One month ago I wrote Rocky a complaint letter about how poorly they assembled my bike (nothing was put on the bike properly, maybe they used one of the workers from their CCM factory to assemble mine) and how shitty the wheels were. I left them two phone numbers to conatct me as well as my return address. As of last night I still hadn't heard from them, so I gave them a call. The seemed to be concerned about how pissed I was. I specifically told them the sticker on my wheels had "Jason's" name on them, as well as I have had to fix other wheels "Jason" has made. Who made your wheels?
Have you heard fro mthe guys at Rocky yet?

Have you heard fro mthe guys at Rocky yet?

Yes, they ended up sending me some RM apparel as well as all new suspension linkages and mounting hardware for my ETSX (as these were damaged parts on my bike when I got it).

They didn't comment on "Jason" but I haven't seen his name on wheels lately, I am sure he still works there but now signs a different name on the wheel.

When I received my Rocky Blizzard a few years back the rear wheel was laced 4X drive side nipples in while the non-drive side was 3X nipples out. What a piece of crap! My LBS kept truing the wheel but it would go out of true very quickly. Finally they rebuilt the wheel 3X and I never had another problem.