# Tubular valve / stem ticking....



## The Flash (May 6, 2002)

All...

This is driving me crazy!!! American Classic Carbon 58 wheel with Vittoria Corsa tubulars. No matter how I glue them or tape them, as the wheel rolls it makes a ticking sound. Slows when I slow, speeds up when I do. Makes no sound when spinning by hand. 

I've tried putting tape and a rubber band around it with no success. Same tire is on the back wheel with no problems and the sound follows when you put the wheel on a different bike.

Apparently, I am not putting this thing on right. Help!!!!!

The Flash


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## Forrest Root (Dec 22, 2006)

The Flash said:


> All...
> 
> This is driving me crazy!!! American Classic Carbon 58 wheel with Vittoria Corsa tubulars. No matter how I glue them or tape them, as the wheel rolls it makes a ticking sound. Slows when I slow, speeds up when I do. Makes no sound when spinning by hand.
> 
> ...


I'd say it's not the valve stem, then, because taping does the trick. Maybe it's the spokes clicking. I'd try putting a drop o' earl on each spoke crossing and see what that does. It can't hurt.


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## geomoney (Oct 9, 2005)

*Ticking noise...*

I had the same problem when I mounted up my first tubular tire.....on my first ride out I would have a ticking sound after riding for a little while. I would stop, check over the wheel, and everything would appear to be in order. I start riding again, and the noise would be gone. After 30 seconds or more, it would come back. This would continue for most of the time during my first ride out. 

Appears that, and anyone feel free to correct me, but I think it was the excess glue residue that was at the edge of the rim where the tire sits. As the wheel went around, it would slightly compress the tire, catch the glue residue in one spot on my wheel, and create a noise as it went past that area. I couldn't think of anything else it could be.

I got home, cleaned the excess glue residue at the edge of the rim, and never heard it again. Wheels and tires are silent from that point onward.......


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## The Flash (May 6, 2002)

I put some oil on the nipples at the rim, but it didn't help. Rim is pretty clean and I cleaned it off completely before remounting. I am thinking it is the ceramic bearings a this point. Luckily, I race for AC and am just down the road from them, so I will drop it off and see what they can do.


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## branzzz (Feb 20, 2007)

i have this noise as well. i suspect it could be the valve stem clicking against the carbon rims. i'll be putting a cut up drinking straw to take out the slack. it worked for my previous wheels with the same problem.


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## MR_GRUMPY (Aug 21, 2002)

I had the opposite problem. I glued a front tire and skimped on glue, right around the valve. The tire never got firmly glued down, at that point, so that every time it went around, the glue would stick a little, and then pull off when the valve was at the top. This produced a click, or pop, every tire revolution. I finally had to take the tire off and reglue.


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## JimP (Dec 18, 2001)

I put a wrap of electrical tape around the valvestem to fill the gap.


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## DIRT BOY (Aug 22, 2002)

The Flash said:


> All...
> 
> This is driving me crazy!!! American Classic Carbon 58 wheel with Vittoria Corsa tubulars. No matter how I glue them or tape them, as the wheel rolls it makes a ticking sound. Slows when I slow, speeds up when I do. Makes no sound when spinning by hand.
> 
> ...


I had the same issues. Nothing work inluding tape. I had the LBS re-glue it and it was fine. There was not enough glue I was told and it was not mounted properly. This was my first time doing it.


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

As others have said, it's a gluing issue. Some sections of your tire are sticking well, and other parts are hanging a bit loose. If it truly drives you nuts, tear the tire off and reglue.


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## The Flash (May 6, 2002)

Took the wheel back and got new bearings....the crunching sound is gone, but the ticking is still there, so I pulled off the tire, got a brand new one and am carefully reglueing it. I've got 2 layers of glue on the rim and 1 on the tire. I'll put another layer on the tire, especially at the edges and then put it all together when it gets tacky.


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## Bill Silverman (Apr 2, 2007)

I'm having the same problem with a set of Fiamme Ergal wheels I built up for my Dave Moulton Fuso. Everything about the bike is great and tuned to perfection... except the ticking sound in the front wheel. 

This is the 3rd time I've pulled off a perfectly good tubular (Vittoria Corsa CX). The first time I thought it might be a weak glue area, so I applied another light layer of cement to both the tire and rim and remounted them. No luck. The second time I resorted to using acetone, cleaning all the cement from the rim and using a new tire. Same problem. 

This time I used acetone and Goof Off to remove the glue from the rim, but it's still a major hassle, and I don't enjoy whiffing "hot" solvent fumes. I'll be trying a few new tricks: 1) roughing up the rim bed with some emery cloth prior to applying cement, 2) use less glue on both tire and rim. I had been following the recommendations of Lennard Zinn, who advocates 2 applications of glue on both tire and rim, and a final application to the rim about 15 minutes before mounting the tire. Problem is that it's darned near impossible to get the tire off. I just mounted a set of tubulars to a modern wheelset for my Campy Ergo 10 equipped Cannondale Optimo, using one application of cement on the rim and tire, and they're on solid and are also nice and quiet.


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## geomoney (Oct 9, 2005)

*Valve stem*

I had the same problem on one of my wheels with a Vittoria Corsa CX, I thought at first it was the glue. I resealed it and it went away for 2 rides, only for the ticking noise to come back. A couple of people suggested putting some sort of insulation around the valve stem. I took a piece of heat shrink tubing, about 2 inches long, and slid it over the valve stem. I heated the top portion so it shrunk onto the outer end of the stem, but left the bottom part as is. This way that portion left a loose barrier aound the stem where it went through the rim. 10 rides later and the noise has yet to come back.

Appears the stem was moving where it comes through the rim as you get over 10 mph.....


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## Bill Silverman (Apr 2, 2007)

Geomoney:

Interesting idea, although the Corsa CX's on my other bikes don't give me any problem. I'm thinking of trying a variation of your method, using teflon tape wrapped around the base of the stem a few times.


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## konaken (Sep 13, 2005)

*Having the same problem*



Mapei said:


> As others have said, it's a gluing issue. Some sections of your tire are sticking well, and other parts are hanging a bit loose. If it truly drives you nuts, tear the tire off and reglue.



This is my first set of tubulars. Got them from the shop yesterday, and bam. Ticking. Back wheel does it the worst. Is it safe to ride, or should I have them removed and reglued?

thanks


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## roadcx (Apr 6, 2008)

I have this same issue on my front wheel (Zero 038 & Tufo S3 lite w/ Tufo Extreme tape). I hadn't changed this tire in a while and was tired of waiting to remove the leaky valve extender and replace it with the valve core extender. So I did a quick change out in the parking lot the Friday before last. Warming up, I noticed the ticking (which sounds exactly like the wheel magnet hitting the sensor, btw). Dealt with it all weekend... Figured it was just a spoke. In the crit on last Saturday, had a low speed crash / tumble in the crit (had time to slow up beforing running over some bikes)... wheel needed to be trued... Had it trued up it was still ticking!

The problem with this noise, is that it does go away when you slow down. Applying pressure / weight does not make it come up. I will probably try some of the isolation tricks above to avoid throwing out this tire for a while (it is still is in good shape). 

---
blog.roadcx.net


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## The Flash (May 6, 2002)

When I put my extensions on, I use teflon tape to get a good seal. Afterwards, I wrap the entire stem with a layer of teflon tape as well and this has cut down the ticking issues completely....


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## Bill Silverman (Apr 2, 2007)

Of course, now I'm afraid it may be an issue with my rim, like a hairline crack. As I mentioned before, it seems to be a problem with my Fiamme Ergal rims, rather than the tubular tires.

For now, I've decided to ride it CAREFULLY, and see if the ticking will go away eventually.


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## mh3 (Mar 8, 2006)

Bill Silverman said:


> Of course, now I'm afraid it may be an issue with my rim, like a hairline crack. As I mentioned before, it seems to be a problem with my Fiamme Ergal rims, rather than the tubular tires.
> 
> For now, I've decided to ride it CAREFULLY, and see if the ticking will go away eventually.


It's been forever since I've ridden them, but I seem to recall an occasional Ergal that would tick at the joint sleeve. May not be your problem, but If the sleeve or pin is slightly loose, it'll tick every rotation. Not really a functional issue, just incredibly annoying.


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## Bill Silverman (Apr 2, 2007)

mh3

Thanks for the input. I had a suspicion about the ticking coming from the joint sleeve. Makes sense. But, of course, I had to pull the tire, clean off the glue, and remount the tire three times before giving up and deciding to live with the ticking. What a royal pain in the *ss!


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## MadCowMoo (Aug 1, 2007)

I had this going on with a new Mavic ES rim and Corse CX tubular. Reglued the tire with no luck, turned out to be a spoke / hub connection thing. A drop of 30 weight oil fixed it.


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