spare_wheel

i agree.

that being said light truing (e.g. dealing with a loose spoke) is not that difficult. a thorough true and re-tensioning is something that, ime, should be done by an experienced wrench or an enthusiast who is willing to learn form his mistakes (been there ).

spare_wheel

you could look into getting some wheels made online (there are some great wheel builders working online -- universal cycles is one local to me example). there is almost certainly someone who builds wheels semi-professionally in your area. local racers/bike enthusiasts/bike clubs are a very good resource for this kind of info.

J.C. Koto

Although it's not advisable in most situations you *can* carefully ride a bike with a broken spoke, particularly if you only need to get it to the shop to have it fixed. If I were in your position I'd call the shop to tell them the situation and make an appointment to have it fixed on the spot, then either remove the broken spoke or, if it's unremovable for whatever reason, tape it to an adjacent spoke to keep it stabilized and carefully ride to the shop to have it fixed.

Either that or take the bus.

Again, not an ideal situation but not the end of the world either.

wphamilton

If you just need to ride it until you can get it to a shop, you can get one of these temporary spokes Amazon.com : FiberFix Emergency Spoke Replacement Kit : Bike Spokes And Accessories : Sports & Outdoors

I haven't used this, but I did make one once from the broken spoke and a piece of shifter cable (cut the spoke, bend it to fit at the hub, bend cut ends around, tie the ends tightly with the cable (the correct length, is the tricky part) then tension like any other spoke. The amazon one would be far easier. I must have ridden it 300 miles before finally getting a real replacement spoke.

contango 

Interesting what you say about the spoke breaking. I've broken five spokes in my life and all five of them were at the nipple.

Agree that it's pretty easy to replace a spoke, and a good skill to have.

contango 

You certainly can, I broke a spoke 3 miles into an 83 mile ride, so I bent the broken spoke until I could free it from the wheel, loosened the brakes so the wheel didn't rub them, and rode home. I paid more attention than normal to avoiding road imperfections, kept my speed down on descents, and made a point to not stamp too hard on the power at any point. When I got home I bought a new spoke and fitted it.

TransitBiker

These are the wheels my bike has, in case anyone was wondering:

Alexrims - cycling wheels 36 spoke, 26 inch. I do not think spoke count was an issue.

Someone mentioned weight on rear for grocery run... I've done a few calculations and estimated that the weight of groceries was about 50 lbs total. 8.5 of that was the gallon of milk i had slung on my back in dual strap backpack. That leaves 41.5 lbs on rack. I've looked at the rack, and i see no indication that this was too much for it, looked at mount points, looked at the bags, very thorough look at everything indicates it can take that weight with no issue.

Then i looked at the spoke and based on what i saw, i'm going to say it was improperly formed, as it is a clean break with no visible point of origin for the failure. One other possibility is that it was over-tensioned when being put in & the cycle of use eventually fatigued it right at the point where it was not being held by the threads, where most of the force would concentrate.

For those suggesting higher spoke count wheels that is a non start, as the N360 hub is what it is, 36 spokes. That brings me to another issue. The N360 has a very tall profile even compared to a nexus hub, meaning the spokes are shorter than on other 26 inch wheels. Shorter spokes usually means stronger wheel as they resist flexing more.

So taking into account not low spoke count, not over-loading with cargo, and relatively shorter spokes, i'm going to say it was definitely going to happen at some point even if i never put anything on the rack. I'm just glad it happened where & when it did vs miles away from home and unpleasant weather etc etc. I'm also fairly certain the issue will be looked into & resolved quickly by 3rd party.

- Andy

TransitBiker

I should also add, that one reason i know weight wasnt a factor, is because i actually lost 40 lbs a few years back & my groceries are ironically usually right at that same weight.

Yes, i do weigh my groceries so i know how much i'm carrying. Helps that they usually fit into 2-3 bags

- Andy

wolfchild

Hey Andy, a broken spoke shouldn't be a show stopper. I strongly recommend that you learn how to replace a broken spoke yourself instead of relying on an LBS...Find out what size spokes your wheels use and then buy a couple of spare spokes and nipples and keep them at home...

Darth Lefty 

Unhook the brake, ride it home and fix it... no drama. It's possible to be a huge nerd about wheel building and it's nice to have a nice wheel on a nice bike, but when you are talking about a cheap commuter and you learn that prisoners used to do it until they invented machines, it sort of loses its luster.

tigrpal

I vote for faulty spoke/weakness in the steel. No way could you over load the wheel. Breezers, IMHO, are well built bikes. I bought mine online. When it arrived, I plucked the spokes and spun the wheels on a truing stand. Tight and true. No adjustment necessary.

tsl

If the spokes aren't sufficiently tensioned, then as the wheel goes around, it compresses ever so slightly allowing the spokes on the bottom to lose even more tension. The spokes are alterately tensioned and loose as the wheel goes round and round, which fatigues the metal.

Don't worry about the load of groceries you carried a few threads ago. Every week my grocery load is between 50 and 70 pounds. Been doing it for years. It's not a problem with a wheel that's been well made.

wolfchild

How much do you weigh ??...Do you carry all those 70 pounds of groceries on the rear rack or do you split the load between front and rear ??...And yes I agree that good quality wheels which are hand build and which have been tensioned properly can easily handle heavy loads, but most machine build wheels can't do that. That's my question, are OPs wheels machine built or hand built.

tsl

Then you got my point.

For the record, I have no front rack. The rear rack is a Tubus Cosmo, rated for 40 kgs. Grocery panniers are good Canadian-made Arkel Shoppers.

Rear wheel is a Velocity Road Disc hub, the now-discontinued eyeletted Velocity VXC disc-specific 700C hoop, laced 3X with 32 DT Swiss Competition double-butted spokes and brass nipples, handbuilt at the LBS where they knew exactly what my requirements were. I expect to get many tens of thousands of miles out of that wheel.

acidfast7

or a taxi.

also 2.5 miles is closer to half an hour than an hour and a half.

Mark Stone

How can you just *say* that??!? Don't you know the heartbreak that can be caused by the loss of a spoke? The emotional toll can be devastating on family and friends. Additionally the cost of a funeral, loss of income, and cost of professional counseling can destroy a family.

TransitBiker

Nah man, i have timed and mapped it, it takes me 28 minutes to walk 1.4 miles. But, the thing is, is that i had to hold the bike the entire time, so im not trucking along at a brisk pace, im carefully walking and avoiding any spots that cannot be walked safely as it was at night in the dark. Walking my old bike to the shop in town took me about an hour, and its easily a half mile closer to home than where i was. I am very lucky that i wasnt carrying groceries and going fast, or it could have been a lot worse.

As for bus, there is no bus unless you want to out of town to the train or into philly,and at that time of night the bus was done. As for taxi, yea, how do i fit bike, and with what extra money do i pay for a taxi? I do not live in an urban area, so even a taxi if i had the 10-20 dollars for it, i'd probably have to wait about an hour for it anyways. This is still a fairly rural area with one bus route connecting it to the rest of the region, and the closest bus stop to me is over a mile. Bus time to train station is 28 minutes with a 20-30 minute wait for train, and a half hour walk to bus stop, you can see how useless it is in my case.

The real reason this is a show stopper is because if i have no way to get to clients i have no income to fix the thing. Thankfully a 3rd party may be able to take care of it, but i cannot give any details on that without their express permission which i doubt i'll get. I'm just thankful they are even remotely an option. Will post updates.

I all ready miss riding, even with this dumping rain.

- Andy

I-Like-To-Bike

Not enough drama in that.

Maybe the cause of the so-called "show stopper" was climate change.

Seriously, get a wire cutter, cut out the broken spoke and ride on 35 spokes until you can save up enough money to buy a spoke and a spoke wrench and replace the spoke.

acidfast7

OK, not being mean here ...

but that's roughly a 1000 USD and you don't have money to take a taxi and get the bike fixed at the shop (less than 50 USD combined)?

what am I missing here?

edit: for comparison, it's £8 to replace a spoke here.

Barrettscv 

The thread has produced some very good information and it's share of discord, closing.