I might have mentioned that I’ve been hearing (and feeling) various creaking, clunking, and grinding noises with my new set-up. The noise from the front wheel seemed to fix itself once I tightened the quick release a bit, but the god-awful noise from the rear is not going anywhere, even after having the shop ‘service’ the hub.

There are a few variations on the base ‘creak’, so I’m not even sure if it’s just one thing that is wrong, but I just discovered something today that makes me think it could be a loose hub. Earlier today I noticed that my rear rim was up against my right brake pad. I hadn’t taken the wheel off since my last ride, so I played around and quickly found out that the wheel could be moved back to its original position. I found this helpful article just now, which describes what I experienced perfectly:

Hold your bike steady, grab the wheel at its highest point and move it from side to side. If it moves at all, sometimes with a clunking noise, your hub is loose.

I guess the only thing I’d change would be ‘creaking or squeaking’ from ‘clunking’. Being able to freely move a wheel laterally like that is probably not a good thing.

I see that Edco has a return program for sending wheels back to be checked. I’m tempted to do this instead of potentially wasting my time at the shop where I bought it. Anyone have any insight into this sort of thing?