How do you tighten spokes on a bicycle?

Answer 1

Carefully, very carefully. If your wheel has good overall tension but is still out of true you slack the spokes on the protruding side with maybe 1/4 turn and then tighten the spoke on the disappearing side with equal amounts.

But I'd suggest you go visit www.sheldonbrown.com first, he's got a nice and helpful piece on his site about wheel trueing.

Answer 2

Get a spoke key of the right size and turn it in the right direction. Do note that it's an easy way to mess up a wheel. Uneven tension will make the wheel untrue, and too high tension can ruin both rim, spoke nipples and occasionally even the hub.

Answer 3

The only friction a spoke sees in use is air drag, which can be reduced by using oval spokes, and fewer of them. When building/trueing a wheel there's some friction in the threads, which is reduced by using a suitable spoke prep compound.

Answer 4

Friction is what happens when two surfaces are brought in contact with each other with a certain force.

Apart from choosing the materials, their surface contour and the contact pressure there really isn't anything you can do to "get" friction, it's a built in characteristic of the materials.