Broken spoke x 3
 

Three broken spokes all about 10-20 city miles apart and on different days thank goodness.

First one: fine this happens
Second one: What bad luck
Third: WTF.

Backstory: I recently acquired a Univega Viva Sport and after updated a few components (tires, handlebars and brake levers) and got it back on the road. Bike and other components are about 20 years old. All the broken spokes were on the rear wheel, which has a shimano 105 6 speed freewheel which happens to be slightly bent. The first two spokes were drive side about 8 spokes separated. The third non drive side. After the first I installed new spoke and trued wheel. After 2nd I read the Sheldon Brown article on spoke tension and decided to tighten all the spokes. I tightened a half turn and then felt that was as tight as I could easily go on the drive side, non drive seem to have significantly less tension, I know some is common but I am not sure what the difference should be.

Do I need to work on my spoke tensioning? Do I need a new wheel? I realize the bent hub is less than ideal (I'm trying to do this on the cheap) but could this be the root of my problem?

Also in the case of a broken spoke is there any first aid I can do so I can ride a bit, my wheel usually goes out of true and progressively gets worse. First two times it happened I was able to limp home but this last time I was halfway to work with no time to go back. Had to lock it up an ride the subway the rest of the way in.

Cool bike, btw... Makes a superb commuter, just add lights & rack.


That bent freewheel... I assume you mean that it wobbles slightly as it spins? Or are there some warped cogs on it?

I'm going to guess that the bike suffered some kind of mishap before you got it. Whatever happened taco'd the rear wheel, and either the bike's owner or the LBS re-trued it the best they could, and thus saved the wheel.

Thing is, in doing that, it put a lot of extra stress on some spokes.

I... uh... speak from experience here. I fixed a wheel for a friend after he had a bumped-from-behind encounter with a car, and I managed to straighten the rear wheel to where you almost couldn't tell it had been badly bent. It was fine for maybe a month, then it began to pop spokes. I didn't mark them (should have) but I'll bet the ones that broke were the ones I cranked on to pull the wheel back straight.

Also, there's a corollary of Murphy's law at work here: A part will fail pretty much immediately after you tune or adjust it.

You could get the existing hub re-laced to a new rim, or, for nearly the same money, buy a decent road bike rear wheel. If that 105 6-speed cog set is a cassette, all you need is a 4.5mm spacer to fit it on a 9 or 10 speed hub. If, though, it's a freewheel, you might have to search a bit to find a compatible wheel.

My advice: Check with the LBSs in your area... One of 'em might have a compatible wheelset hanging in storage.

Good summary. This is a variation on the British axiom;

Once is bad luck
Twice is coincidence
Third time is enemy action

As applied to bike wheels;

First one: replace
Second one: replace but be very suspicious
Third: time for a complete relacing or a new wheel.