Strange noise from front wheel when under load…

[RussellZero]

Hi gurus. On the weekend I swapped out the tyres on my wife’s Trek Domane+ AL5 for some tubeless ones, added rim tape etc. That part all went well. However, when she went for her first ride on it, it’s making a noise that sounds like spokes pinging somehow - this only happens when there is weight on the front of the bike. In the video I wheel it with load, then move to the other side of the bike, roll it 3 times to reproduce the noise with load, then twice without load to show it doesn’t make the noise. I can’t for the life of me figure out why it would do this or what can be causing it. I’ve taken the wheel off again, (thru-axle) and checked everything, put it back on again and it’s the same story. Any advice please? Looks like it would be all safe to ride, but I don’t like the idea of a spoke breaking or coming lose mid ride if it’s something I can prevent!

thanks in advance…

 

[ColinJ]

I think that I had that on one bike. In my case some of the spokes on the front wheel had flat sections worn onto them where they crossed other spokes. I reckon that the spokes were breaking free of the worn grooves under load?

 

[fritz katzenjammer]

Try a very small drop of oil where the spokes cross each other, that should shut them up. We recently had a bike through the shop making a noise like that and a bit of oil cured it. My own Domane tends towards a bit of front wheel noise.

Be sure you’ve checked the tension of the spokes looked at just to be sure.