My lovely mountain bike has been out of action for a few weeks as the BB was knackered. As i got paid a couple days a go i bought a new one and it arrived today and i fitted promptly. After the BB was fitted as the bike was in the workstand i thought might aswell give the gears a good running through. So i started to turn the pedals and every revolution there was a metal clunk from my rear wheel. The faster the wheel went the less it was heard until it completely stopped at a certain speed. So i took the wheel out for further diagnosis and gave it a bit of a shake, it really sounded like something rattling INSIDE my rim. But tbh i thought.....noooo.
So now i took the axle out of the hub, aswell as the bearings but they all looked nicely greased, gave the wheel a shake and the noise was still there. So off with the freehub, gave the wheel another shake...nope the noise was still there. The tyre and tube were already out so off with the rim tape, as now the noise HAD to be in the rim. Funnily enough just where i levered up the rim tape i saw something that looked foreign next to a spoke nipple, here is a bit of a picture.
These wheels were bought from Merlin Christmas 05'. In that time they have remained pretty much perfectly true and the hubs have never needed a service, and when i stripped the hub today it was still lovely inside. My question is even though its now 2.5 years later will Merlin do anything about it if I drop them a polite email. Or will they politely tell me the warranty is long up? The rim has been looked after and tbh i expected to last longer. It's never been abused, i don't do jumps on it etc...Just general trail riding.
Right i've put some of unibonds "no more nails" in that section where the bit of metal was moving but the tiny weight difference is making it spin funny and makes me bob lol.
Think i'm gunna have to even it out and put the same amount in the exact opposide side of the rim.
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