Broken rear spoke on non-drive side
So I broke my first spoke today, and it was on the rear wheel, non-drive side. I got the new spoke and armed with a fairly old e-how article, got it replaced and tightened so the wheel is now reasonably true.
My concern is that I think I was doing something wrong when I replaced it. I know when the spoke breaks on the drive side, you've gotta remove the cassette because it blocks the holes on the hub. I thought for the non drive side it'd be okay to skip that part though. However, I wasn't able to thread the spoke through the hole on the non-cassette side of the hub because the stupid thing just got in 3 inches and then hit the cassette, and I couldn't angle it to go through.
I did end up getting it in, but I bent the CRAP out of the spoke doing it. Once I got it through, I straightened it by eye, and then installed it normally. Now that it's in there, it looks straight enough, and the wheel's not wobbling anymore, but I can't imagine it's okay to bend the spoke when putting it in there. So was I wrong? Do you have to remove the cassette for EVERY rear spoke replacement?