How to Tighten Dirt Bike Spokes

Author : Efrain Silva

When it comes to getting those spokes nice and tight, as they should be, you should start by bearing in mind the plain fact that broken spokes can get caught in your wheels as you ride, and that is not a good thing in itself — to say the very least, it can lead to every sort of other problem, if you do not deal with it in a timely manner. The spoke that finds itself right next to your rim’s lock is the one you should be targeting first, when coming in with the solution ; now, first of all here, you are going to want to tighten that spoke first and then skip two spokes (going across all spokes on the wheel) and do the third one.

The pattern is to start with one and then skip two, starting with the rim lock spoke making things a whole heck of a lot easier, just trust me there. If you tightened every single spoke in a row, one by one (assuming all these spokes were loose), you would run into a whole ‘nother animal of a problem on its own, a true beast you do not want to deal with —- and that’s getting the wheel out of its true alignment. Either way, you should have gone around the wheel three times before getting all spokes — so you will get them, either way, just don’t do them one by one in order.

Even though some spokes might be a bit more loose than others, we should not discriminate here (heh heh heh) : Make sure they are all, at the end of the day, at equal tight - ness. Now, also, the sprocket, not to mention the brake rotor, as well, is never a good place for a broken spoke to go ; with that said, I mean you should do everything you can in the way of safe prevention, in this case, meaning you ought to safety - wire those spokes and cover your be - hind in doing so (not literally, just a nice way to say, “Cover your ass by doing things right the first time”).

When the spokes are properly and securely safety - wired, if they should break, they at least will not go into the rotor or other areas where they could mess the bike up worse. That is the whole point of safety - wiring, all in all. Did you also know that, when tightening, you don’t have to use any old basic tool in your garage if you don’t want to? What I mean is that stores now sell what they call a “spoke torque wrench” which sure as heck makes things a whole lot easier. Consider getting one.

Now, there is also this to keep in mind : Did you keep your bike owner’s manual and manufacturer’s info booklets (if you got the dirt bike brand - new)? I say this why? Well, it’s because there is an ideal recommended torque setting that each manufacturer provides for their brand’s bikes.