Rattle in my bling Campy Vento wheels - Solved

[Spaghetti Legs]

I recently picked up a Campy 8 speed group which included a set of mid 90’s Vento 16 HPW wheels - the shiny deep dish ones. Wheels are in gorgeous condition, nice and true and spin smooth but there is a rattle, both front and rear. When I first heard it on the front wheel, my first thought is a bearing issue, sounds like a ball missing and no grease, but now I don’t think so. These have the orange seal cartridge bearings and popping the dust cover off, they look to be intact and clean and the spin seems smooth. Listening closely it seems more like inside the rim but I can only hear it when spinning in the stand, not when I shake the wheel around. Spoke tension looks good, wheels round and true.

Any thoughts? Is this just how these wheels roll?

[rustychisel]

Do a bit of research on this forum.... some wheels are notorious for noisy rattles, usually swarf inside the rim. Could be a loose spoke nipple... something. Fixes usually involve dribbling some glue into the rim to anchor the little sucker, or using a magnet to extract...

[Look585]

Also, don't overlook the possibility of the valve stem rattling in the rim hole. A bit of electrical tape or drinking straw can be useful in quieting valve stem rattles.

[jtakeda]

I had some shamals of the same era and had a similar noise. I think once a tiny piece of metal gets stuck in the aero section it’s noise time and nothing you can do about it

[Jef58]

I have a set of the black version that were a few years later. They have a floating type washer at the nipple head that may have come loose. Mine are quiet and still very nice wheels even by today's standards... Not sure what else could have gotten in there other than that or a valve stem that was mentioned...

[oldpotatoe]

I recently picked up a Campy 8 speed group which included a set of mid 90’s Vento 16 HPW wheels - the shiny deep dish ones. Wheels are in gorgeous condition, nice and true and spin smooth but there is a rattle, both front and rear. When I first heard it on the front wheel, my first thought is a bearing issue, sounds like a ball missing and no grease, but now I don’t think so. These have the orange seal cartridge bearings and popping the dust cover off, they look to be intact and clean and the spin seems smooth. Listening closely it seems more like inside the rim but I can only hear it when spinning in the stand, not when I shake the wheel around. Spoke tension looks good, wheels round and true.

Any thoughts? Is this just how these wheels roll?

Wonder if somebody lost a nipple or nipple washer in the rim and just left it?

[Spaghetti Legs]

Thanks for the replies. I was mostly curious if this was a known “feature” of these wheels. If it was random loose bit, weird that it would happen in both wheels. Also no tubes mounted yet, so not a valve stem. I think I’ll take off the rim tape, explore, drop of oil at all the spoke contact points.

[Spaghetti Legs]

Thought I would post the solution. Turns out is was just dry bearings. I thought they were cartridge bearings but they’re cup and cone with orange seals. I lubed everything up and they’re smooth and quiet as silk!