"Creaky" Mavic Cosmos Rear Wheel

2004 Bianchi Vigorelli with about 2000 miles on it. The Cosmos wheels are stock.

The rear wheel is "dished", and the spokes on the left side seem to be not quite as tight as the spokes on the right. The wheel is very true. Anyways, the rear wheel is creaking. It will only do it with some weight on the bike. If I lay my chest on the saddle and roll the bike back and forth I can get it to do it a little bit, but you can definitely hear it pretty good while riding. I can't tell exactly what is making the noise, but I suspect it's the spokes. I was going to try and tighten them up a little, but I'm afraid of pulling the wheel out of true. I can usually true up a wheel half decent if it comes out of true, but I'm not an experienced wheel builder by any means, and these wheels are expensive, by my standards. Besides, some of the spokes are pretty good and tight, and I don't want to overtension those spokes. The way I figure it, if the wheel is true, and I tighten a couple of spokes, I pretty much have to tighten them all. I'm very happy with the wheels, I'd just like to get rid of the noise.

Is there anything else that anyone can think of that might make a "creaky" noise back there?

I don't really have a good, reliable bike shop around here that I would trust to take the wheel to. Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

 

If the spokes are tight, and all of the spokes on each side feel like they're at the same tension you don't need to tighten anything. A drop or two of lubricant on each spoke nipple where it comes through the rim should take care of the creak.

 

I had similar problems with my stock Cosmos. They were easily knocked out of alignment. I tried the lubricant thing and it didn't work. Whenever the wheels were even slightly out of true they would creak (especially irritating on long rides). I eventually bought a set of Ksyrium elites and they have been great, pretty much bombproof. If you do an internet search I remember seeing some people with similar problems who re-laced the wheels differently (tension or pattern, can't remember) and had success with that.

 

Mavic wheelsets creak when skewers are over tightened. Mavic mechanics recommend being able to just close the skewers with a finger.

 

Had this sound on my Mavic Cosmic - but the wheel were 100% true with no need for any adjustment for 5 years, I wouldn't worry about the sound. Might be too thight skewer?

 

I had the exact same thing with a set of Cosmic Elites. Wheel was generally fine, including being true but each time I stood out of the saddle, creak creak creak. My LBS looked at it twice, the first they did all the regular things, spoke tension, etc etc. which didn't solve the problem. The next time they found a very small hairline crack in the side of the rim.

--brett

 

Does your rear wheel still have that small circular plastic guard attached?
The one next to your rear gears?

My rear wheel had a bit of screechy noise and it turned out that the circular rear wheel plastic guard out of alignment and rubbing against something.. Nothing too serious, just took out the plastic thing and the sound was no more.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Well, it's not the skewer. There's no plastic guard. I guess I'll just let it go, I'm getting used to it. I'll keep an eye and ear on it, if it gets worse I'll take it to someone.