Mavic Aksium - build quality ?

[hoogerbooger]

Anyone had problems with these staying true ?

In tracking down a 'tinking' sound from the back wheel I eventually spotted it was out of true with low and uneven tension on the spokes. It's a 2015 Mavic Akisum, but has not done much mileage. The spokes were loose enough that the wheel seems to have been flexi vertically on rotation, causing the 'tinking'. (Spokes must have gradually unwound themselves to the point that one pair of spokes lifted of the rim under compression ?)

I've trued and tightened the spokes up, but was a bit surprised on taking the rim tape off to see a blue, presumably thread-locker on the spoke/nipple end. Must have come with that new ( unless Condor Cycles put it on) I've never used or seen thread locker on standard spoked wheels and have no previous experience with straight-pull spokes. So is such a wheel more prone to spokes slackening up, or is it a case of if it is tensioned correctly, there shouldn't be a problem?

[tim-b]

Hi
I've got a pair of 2013 Aksiums, 3-season use only but no problems and I don't remember taking a spoke key to them
I have another lighter pair of wheels (not Mavic, ~1520g pair) and one spoke went totally slack first time out. It had blue gunk on the threads, tightened without issue and hasn't caused a problem since. If the blue gunk is threadlocker then it didn't seem to be doing much when I tightened that spoke
I'm 90kg if that helps
Regards
tim-b

[bgnukem]

A guy in our club had a set of Aksium disc wheels which made a similar tinkling noise due to loose spokes.

I've a set of non-disc Aksiums from around 2008 and they've been perfect and hardly ever needed spoke tweaking.

[hoogerbooger]

Noted. This one is an Askium disc. So I'm not the only one then.

I will just have to see how my trueing lasts.

Fingers crossed

[Jamesh]

I would think braking would put as much stress on a disc wheel as sprinting?

Burcey might know more! But I think that's the case.

Cheers James

[rogerzilla]

Much more force from braking (with a hub brake). Braking forces from a rim brake are small and relate to differential rim compression in the front and rear halves of the wheel.

[Brucey]

IIRC an FEA study showed very clearly that the NDS 'leading' spokes would see some of the worst fatigue loadings in a conventional (rim brake) wheel, eg when the lateral loads from climbing were added. These loadings would never be that high in that wheel, but are more likely to be harmful because the tension preload is not always maintained. Fewer spokes = even worse fatigue loadings.

In a disc brake wheel the NDS spokes see the braking loads too. This adds high peak loads to the NDS leading spokes, and also adds the possibility that NDS trailing spokes may go slack during braking.

Furthermore rear disc brake wheels are conventionally built 'skew' (i.e. outside spokes are trailing one side, leading the other). Because the inside spokes ought to be slightly shorter, this means that a particular fault can arise more easily in 'skew' wheels which is that all the 'outside' spokes can have a higher tension than all the 'inside' spokes, especially if the wheel is built using a nipple setting tool. This can lead to the NDS inside, trailing spokes being even more likely to back out than usual.

Almost no 'minimal spoking' wheels are built without threadlock on the spokes. This is normally applied as blue paste to the spokes in the spoke factory. This is clever stuff, but it isn't always sufficiently strong to prevent nipples from backing out.

cheers

[rmurphy195]

See my reply of 25 April 2016 in this review https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=105798&p=1009113&hilit=aksium#p1009113 which points to a thread I started on the subject.

The wheels were supplied the year before, so the date is about the same as yours, and so maybe you have the same fault.

I haven't had any problems with the replacement as yet (4 years of occasional use later including day rides and shopping!)

[hoogerbooger]

Ah ha.spookily worrying. It is indeed the same hub/Wheel (Aksium one disc) coincidentally on a Condor. It was ridden for a year without problems until my missus and the front half of the bike got splatted by a car. Now she's finally recovered we got a replacement frame and front wheel and after a few months it started making noises.

Just been out and after about 20km could hear a slight tink.after 60km another mystery noise but only when pedalling . So more investigation for me tomorrow.

I still suspect spokes tension as the issue.......but nice to know the glue might fail and it'll start creaking.

[Paul Smith SRCC]

It is quite common on those wheels, retensioning the spokes normally resolves the issue. Be careful not to over tension as you can put to much stress on the eyelet; I've even seen many rims crack at that point and even the nipple/spoke pull out right out if the rim.

If the creak persists the next thing I'd try is a light smear of grease on the cassette body, the sprocket/body interface maybe not that accurate and if dry they can sometimes make a similar 'tinking' sound; although I'd reference that sound normally manifests as more like a creak than a "tinking". I normally try one thing at a time, that way you will know what the cause was.

[hoogerbooger]

Can I check:

1) I have blue loctite threadlocker. Would that be ok to use over the blue paste, when I'm happy with the tensions.
2) the wheel is built skew. If I understand Brucey correctly that makes no difference to the process of truing the wheel.. &..tensions should be the same on leading and trailing spokes( but different on dished and NDS.

Update
The newest noise was just the FD cable catching the pedal arm (great) not tinking on short test ride earlier, but investigating anyway.

Thanks for the tip on cassette greasing. I had greased the freehub/cassette body. I am pretty sure it was/is a spoke tension issue as I could squeeze a particular pair of spokes and get a similar tink and it seemed the same location as when the bike was being ridden tinking once per rotation as that pair approached the lowest point.... originally not all the time, but later on every revolution when riding. No sound when wheel just spun.

Wheel went back in trueing stand. No spoke obviously slackened off and wheel not obviously out of true. On non drive side a couple of spokes slightly different tone when tapped with screwdriver......but this is where I ended up to get the rim as true as I could. I've just repeated evening up the tensions on the respective sides. With each side 'tuned' to pitch..the wheel is slightly out of true. So trued it up again as best I can and pitch slightly out on a few spokes. But stopping there. Threadlock ? Then see how it goes again on the bike.