Bicycle Mechanics - How Hard is it to Measure a Spoke??!?!?!

So I broke a spoke on my wheels today. No big deal. Call up the bike shop, ask for a 285mm spoke. He only has 288. Fine, 3mm won't make that much of a difference, right? I drive over, pick up the spoke. Don't need a nipple, I still have the old one, which happens to be an internal nipple. Go home, thread the spoke in, begin to tighten it. Check inside the rim, and like 5mm of threads are sticking out the back end of the nipple and the thing isn't even tight yet. WTF? I try to loosen the spoke, but the nipple just turns, presumably because its past the treads or is now stripped. I cut the spoke, figuring it was only a buck, and measure it. The frickin thing is 295mm. 3mm? fine. 10mm? NOOOOOO!! And now, I can't go to a competent bike shop for the right size spoke, because my internal nipple is permanently attached to my wrong sized spoke.

UGH!! Why can't they guy at the shop either A: Read the right size or B: Tell me he really doesn't feel like helping me so I might as well take my business elsewhere. Should I have measured it once I got home? Yea. But I didn't realize that asking for a specific size spoke was a challenge for the head mechanic of a bike shop. I've worked as a mechanic. Its not hard. It just has to do with some jerk deciding that you aren't worth the time of day. And now I will miss my weekend ride because of this guy.

Just had to vent. Sorry.

-Steve

Perhaps someone put the wrong sized spoke into that box. Mistakes happen. Perhaps he'll give you the correct sized spoke, AND a nipple to make up for it.

Could've been a simple mistake of someone putting the wrong size spoke in a spoke box and the person just assuming everything in the box was that size

maybe the guy understood the wrong number?? many stuff could have happen... what i really cant stand is when the guy who is selling you the stuff is clueless and refuse to admit it. I would try to come back to that shop only if necessary. The other thing is that you didnt check before leaving so in my oppinion u have no reason to complain that much.

Good luck trying to take the nipple out...

:)

Maybe you made a similar mistake back when you were a mechanic and this was the karmic payback.

The good news is...now you're clear. ;)

I'll ask a parallel question - How hard is it to count spokes? On Monday I ordered 28 custom cut, and when I went to pick them up on Wednesday, there were only 27! Lucky I took the time to lay them out in sets of 5 on the counter. Took another half hour to get the 28th cut, and of course it was too long. Had to grind it to fit last night at home, because they weren't that interested in getting it right.

So why didn't you measure the spoke to make sure it was the right size? You are just as much at fault.

Wow guys, thanks for being so supportive and helpful when I just needed to let out a little frustration.

Mods, could you just close this thread now? Its clearly not helping anyone.

-Steve

+1

Last year I was on vacation and I broke a spoke. I limped back to the motel and headed over to the local bike shop to get a new spoke. I told him I needed 299mm and he sold me one. I installed it back at the motel but had difficulty getting the high spot out at the new spoke. I figured I'd ride it with a bit of a high spot and fix it when I got home. Well, I broke another spoke the next day - one adjacent to and on the same side as the one I had just replaced. When I got home, I took out the new spoke and found that it was 301mm!