Hi. 2010 FXSTC and i do have a service manual. I have to replace the rear tire and I have a few loose spokes on the wheel. Planning on purchasing a spoke torque wrench and want to make sure I have the correct size wrench head in the kit. Anyone know what size the nipples are on this model? I wish they would include fastener sizes in the manuals but they don't.

Also on another topic I have a very slow leak in my front tire. Loses a pound or two a week. It's been driving me bonkers. Wheel looks to be fine. Sprayed it with Tech Teck and no bubbles were seen. Replaced the tube, liner and the Schrader valve. Installed a sealing valve cap. Installed Ride-on. Can't find the leak and nothing seems to stop it. Submerged the old tube and saw no leaks. I talked to the guy at my Indy shop and he said "they do that sometimes".

I have a compressor so it's no huge deal but maintaining an airtight seal inside a wheel isn't rocket science. What am I missing? I have several very good air pressure gauges. I usually refill it when it's down about 5# and it gets back up to pressure VERY quickly... faster than I'd expect. I always check the air pressure on a cold tire.

Hope I'm not coming off as OCD but this is really bugging me. All my other bikes/cars hold their air pressure for many, many months. Years, actually. Many thanks in advance!

 

Looks to be just a tad under 1/4". Put a mic on it and it measures .22" or ~ 5.6mm. Ordered a kit off Amazon that has a 5.4mm, 5.6mm and a 5.8mm head so fingers crossed.

 

first of all, a spoke torque wrench will not help you, sure it could be used when you first set up the spokes as when truing the rim as a starting point but past that, not much help as spokes ARE NOT in equal torque through out the rim.
a nipple wrench IS a good idea, see too many screw nipples using a common wrench. lube is your friend here especially with stainless. that said, this makes the torque wrench less valuable also.
most seasoned wheel mechanics go by sound and dial indicators and can true a wheel in VERY short order. remember there is a reaction to every action.

 

I just relaced a couple rims and I used a 6MM wrench. I was able to use the 6.1MM spoke wrench without issue also.

 

The nipple wrench set showed up. Turns out, the nipples on my 2010 FXSTC are 6.0mm. I've been riding on a daily basis for over 60 years and this is the first time I have even looked at spokes other than to clean them. My 1997 FXR busted a couple of spokes on the rear wheel many years ago and I just replaced it with a fat boy wheel. So out of 4 bikes in the garage there are only 1 1/2 with laced wheels.

Odd that you'd pooh-pooh using a torque wrench. I've done most of my own maintenance with crappy tools most of my life and didn't even own a torque wrench until a few years ago. Over the past 4 years or so I have been upgrading my shop and tool set and it has certainly made my life easier. I plan on checking the rear wheel runout (on the bike) but I'm going to assume that it's probably in spec. There are a couple of loose spokes based on the sound and I hope you don't mind but I'm going to spring for a spoke torque wrench just because.

The prevailing wisdom from what I've read is to not tighten any nipple more than one flat so as to not pull the wheel out of true. Based on the not-so-scientific clang a screwdriver on each spoke test it would appear that none are massively loose.

Several have mentioned lube and I'm sure that's a good idea. Loosen a questionable spoke one flat, then tighten to where it was. Then tighten up to one more flat or proper torque, whichever comes first. The spec is 55 in/lbs which isn't tight at all. Seems the best advice I've seen so far is to not go crazy. Small adjustments wins the day. God watches over drunk sailors and little children. The things I haven't known over my entire lifetime could fill a book. Laced wheel technology is one of those topics.

 

How did you measure 5.6mm if it was 6mm? ... (or how did you measure .22" when if it was ~.236" ?)

 

Ummm... with a micrometer. Not the most precision mic out there but good enough for my purposes. I didn't pay a lot for it but I am not doing tight nanometer tolerance machining for the nuclear power industry here. I stated "a hair under 1/4". I guessed 5.8mm and was 0.2mm off since I didn't allow for a tiny gap to actually slide the wrench onto the fitting.

Your snarky jab would have been a lot more impressive if you measured your own laced wheels and said "A 6mm nipple wrench head will be a perfect fit". If you posted that a week ago that is.

 

It was a serious question. You said you put a "mic" on it. That usually means a micrometer. I was wondering if really using a micrometer how you could be that far off. If you were using a tape measure than it's very understandable

 

This is vey similar the procedure in my 2015 sporty service manual. If memory serves there is also a procedure for truing, using opposites and torque wrench. The bikes owned with spoked wheels both benefitted from this procedure. Sometimes it takes more than one full wheel rotation.

And am not any type of master mechanic by any means.

 

age old "?"
does the wheel use tension or compression to hold the load???
aka, hanging weight or supporting weight

spokes are MOST forgiving and can take a lot of abuse in twisting and such, reason why you very seldom see a moto-cross with a cast wheel. i had a suzuki that ate spokes like candy till i changed the rim.
that is an ole saying about going around the rim tweaking the spokes the same amount, BUT, having it in a truing stand is WAYYYYY better. most spokes are triplet in nature and flip/flop side to side not single by single. sometimes you have to start at a zero point or you wind up with spokes way in tension which down the road leads to things not so good. then there is the angle of the dangle, drop center and so on.
so if you have loose spokes, there is an underlying issue, a band-aide solution is just that so what happens when you rip the band-aide off???