New Road Bike- creaking/pinging noise from spokes?

[MiseryStreak]

There is a lot of whoo about wheel building and tuning like it's some sort of black art. It really isn't. My friend and I built a pair of wheels recently following an online guide (the Sheldon Brown one: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html), it took an hour or so getting them straight but it really isn't as impossible as people make out. If you can read and use basic tools then you can build a wheel.

Straightening a wheel is as easy as any job on a bike, you just spin the wheel with the brakes lightly on, see where the rim pushes out, tighten the corresponding spoke to pull it in, then just check all the spokes by pinging them, you can hear straight away when a spoke is out of tune from the others. The only tricky bit is getting a feel for what the correct overall tension should be, you just pick this up over time, just compare it to a correctly built new wheel at first.

[upsidedownmark]

Absolutely. I also build/re-build my own on occasion, but in fairness, the OP ought to have some comeback on the retailer, rather than having to pick up a spoke key.

[MiseryStreak]

My spokes creaked after a few hundred miles, I just gave them all a little turn and it went away.

I think I misspelled 'woo', sorry.

[R1gtr]

benny.c said:

or maybe I just don't put down spoke loosening power

That's what it is, I am too powerful for the bike, I knew it

Thanks to everyone for replying, it is appreciated. I an new to thus biking lark and loving it so far, not sure if I was more upset about thinking I have a fault or the fact that I might be without the bike for a bit if it needs repairs.

I bought the bike online as the price was fantastic, living in the Highlands I cant just pop down to England to get them to check it so maybe time to build a relationship with the local bike shop.

I guess I planned on upgrading bits and pieces at a later date as and when needed, I dont want super-duper wheels now as I won't have any excuses as to why I am so st at going up hills!