Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
Is there something about the Topilino through the hub design that makes this worse? Can you true it yourself in the field to make up for the broken spoke?
For the rear wheel, I believe the out-of-true problem comes in to play if you break a non-drive side spoke terminator... noting that 18 of the 30 spokes are on the drive side with only 12 on the non-drive side.
Beyond that, the Topolino's through the hub spokes act like a regular wheel when a spoke breaks in that all of the spokes on each side of the wheel become an integrated unit along with their respective half of the hub body during the fabrication process. In other words, even though the spoke passes through the hub, all of the spokes are fused together in the hub.
Of course, that also means a broken spoke requires a rebuild of the wheel with a new left or right spoke network, as I don't think they can replace just the terminator ends when the stainless steel threaded end of the terminator breaks. Now, I also believe Topolino may have increased the gauge of those threaded terminators and nipples in newer wheels... not positive about that as I heard this second hand from another Topolino owner after he sent a wheel back with a broken spoke for repair.
As for truing in the field, you'd need to remove the tire and rim strip tape and have a 5.5mm nipple driver + an adjustable wrench in your tool kit. The nipple driver is used like any other nipple driver on low spoke count wheels, e.g., Rolfs and the adjustable wrench is used to keep the terminator / spoke blade from twisting and/or to straighten it out once you finish adjusting the spoke tension. So, yes... in theory, you can do it but it's not as easy as it is with conventional wheels that have exposed nipples adjusted with a spoke wrench.