Road Cycling - Bent Ksyrium spokes

I came back from a ride that terminated at my FBS. As I was loading up the bike onto the rack, I noticed something odd about my rear wheel. One of my Ksyrium bladed spokes was... bent. I immediately freaked out and checked for wobble and flat spots. Amazingly enough, the wheel was still true with no wobbles or any indication that the bent spoke effected it. These things are truly bombproof. The shop mechanic said I could probably still ride with it but I had him order me a replacement. $5 for the spoke plus $10 for labour. Kinda pricey but oh well. I also had him order me a spare. He told me they had to order them in packs of 18 or something like that anyways but it wasn't a problem because another customer managed to tweak a few spokes in a recent crash too.

http://www.neebu.net/~khuon/albums/mavic-ksyrium-tools/PICT0009.jpg

Now there's a bummer. Last Monday I broke a spoke on my Bongtrager Race rear. According to Bontragre, the wheelset is supposed to near bombproof, even for someone of my largeness. The wheel went out of true almost immediately. Luckily, I was less than two blocks from home.

I think I will give Bontrager the benefit of the doubt on this first one as I may have had something kick into the spokes. But, one more and they are going to make an adjustment when I move up to the Aero X's.

I actually don't know how long I've been riding with this bent spoke. The wheel's still true and round. I guess I've been delinquent with doing my wheel inspection before each ride.

here in Toronto, there's a bike shop, who does the ksyrium wheels, I mean lace them, I thinks they are the authorized Mavic dealer here in Toronto, Just find out your local Mavic dealer in your area, no need to order a whole set of the spokes, if you can find the Mavic dealer in your area.

here in Toronto, there's a bike shop, who does the ksyrium wheels, I mean lace them, I thinks they are the authorized Mavic dealer here in Toronto, Just find out your local Mavic dealer in your area, no need to order a whole set of the spokes, if you can find the Mavic dealer in your area.

Yeah, my bike shop will handle it for me. They're not going to force me to buy a whole package.

Yeah, my bike shop will handle it for me. They're not going to force me to buy a whole package.

Just out of curiosity, which bike shop do you shop at? Gregg's?

Just out of curiosity, which bike shop do you shop at? Gregg's?

Bothell Ski and Bike

Looks like you had spoke windup. This shows up more in bladed spokes.

Trek, you bust a drive side spoke (casette side) and the wheel will definatly not stay in true. The non drive side runs about 60% of the tension a drive side runs. Did the spoke break at the elbow or in the middle

Looks like you had spoke windup. This shows up more in bladed spokes.

Trek, you bust a drive side spoke (casette side) and the wheel will definatly not stay in true. The non drive side runs about 60% of the tension a drive side runs. Did the spoke break at the elbow or in the middle

It snapped at the elbow. I am still hoping it was something that accidentally kicked up into the spokes. I would hate to be caught in the cycle I was in before with my Trek Navigator, breaking spokes every two weeks or so, until I got an nearly indestructible wheel, that, by the way, weighs somewhere around 37 tons.

I've had spokes get bent on older Ksyriums in the same spot. The closer to the spoke nipple, the quicker it will go. Mine lasted another 1500 miles before it went but when they go, the wheel is really out of true. I've got a good local shop that will replace the Ksyrium spoke and true the wheel for 10 bucks.

Good Luck

The bike shop ordered me some replacement spokes and they said they'll charge me only $10 for an installation and any truing that needs to be done. The new spokes will arrive sometime next week. I'm still riding with the bent spoke because the wheel is still true. The problem spoke is on the non-driveside.

FYI, the non drive side has 60% of the drive side tension so that should be ok. Easy to replace and re-true. Breaking at the bend is normally from a lose spoke. The material work hardens and then fails over time.

Breaking at the bend is normally from a lose spoke.

Except that these spokes have no bend... well they didn't originally at least. These are straight pull spokes.

They are like my WH7700's then in that regard, not like my other with 14/15 db spokes.