[QUOTE=Kon.... (blah, blah, blah, blah...)
And I am all for learning to work on bikes, but you don't do that by starting with screwed up stuff. That leads you down the path of erroneous conclusions, like Cycomute's. Either learn from someone who knows what they are doing, or start with mostly new components of the correct dimensions and keep control of all the steps. The OP has a problem that needs solving right now, and a pro adjusting his existing spokes is the simplest and least expensive path forward. Why do you guys always want everything to be harder than it needs to be?[/QUOTE]
Once more than one spoke breaks in a wheel, this is the SURE SIGN that the spokes are at the end of their fatigue life. I say this as someone who managed multiple LBS's over the last 40 years. One of the BIGGEST complaint at the service counter was this very same scenario. Customer breaks spoke, comes into shop and the shop charges said customer for spoke replacement. The following week, the customer returns VERY unhappy with ANOTHER broken spoke. This is why I directed my staff to qualify the wheel repair with:
1) Have you broken a spoke before?
2) If so, if more than one, it's time for a new wheel. If we replace this one, another one will break. Probably on your first ride.
3) If the customer says it's the first failure, we agree to fix it with the caveat: "There is NO guarantee another spoke won't break on your next ride." Replacing failure #1 is merely a way to address the "fluke" failure.
Re-tensioning the OP's wheel with the original spokes is a fool's errand. Surely, the person doing this will experience additional failures. And once THOSE are replaced, the OP will soon have more break. Suggesting using the old spokes is beyond irresponsible. All to save $50? Plus, the wheels should be rebuilt with butted spokes, far superior to the original straight gauge Dreck that they were built with.
Stainless steel is already an alloy. You think there's only one? Hardly.
Quality spoke producers have proprietary "treatment" that allows them to achieve the highest tensile strengths & fatigue lives they can. (This is why GCN was not allowed to film in much of DT's production works.) Cold working their alloy of choice improves strength and fatigue life. This is why DT, Sapim and Wheelsmith have proven to provide excellent performance for decades.
Assuming the wheels are still new (they are, per the OP), rebuilding with quality, butted spokes is the most cost-effective and reasonable solution.
Last edited by LV2TNDM; 07-03-25 at 12:36 AM.