Bike Lane

Hello everyone. So I took my bike to my lbs a while back because I had a broken spoke on my rear wheel which I assumed was causing the wheel to wobble. Turns out though, it is both a broken spoke as well as a fissured axel. The lbs quoted me at well over $100 to fix this. They said that since my wheel is older it is going to be hard to replace. My wheel set is 1990 ish shimano 105. So what do I do exactly? Does it make more sense to buy a whole new hub/wheel? or are these things actually easy to find? All I know is it has been almost a whole month, I am still quite broke, and I just want to get back on the bike I love riding. WadduIdo? thank you

Steev

If you need someone to do the work, then it is likely that replacement will be cost effective. If you can do the work yourself, parts should be quite cheap. You will need a cassette tool, cone wrenches and a spoke wrench.

Retro Grouch 

Need more information.

"Broken axle" says "freewheel rear hub" to me. On a freewheel hub the drive side bearing is too close to the center of the hub and can't support the axle as well as you'd like. Newer freehub designs relocate the bearing farther outboard and don't break axles so much. That would seem to say "bite the bullet and buy a whole new wheel." It's the "A" answer.

Unfortunately, it's never as neat as that. The age of your bike also suggests that it has 126 mm dropouts. A new factory wheel is going to be designed for 130 mm dropouts and for an 8-speed cassette. There are, of course, ways around both issues, but it does become more of a project.

If it was my bike and I had budget restraints, I'd rebuild what you have. Overhaul your hub with a new axle, replace the broken spoke, and check the tension on all of the spokes. That's not the most elegant repair but it's likely to be the cheapest. We're talking about a 20 year old bike. If the original axle lasted this long a replacement should get you by for a few more years.

slowpace

100.00 to rebuild a hub, replace a spoke and wheel true is a high price to me. It would rund about half that in my shop.

mrrabbit 

But before you do anything listed previously...get the rear dropout alignments checked. Otherwise you might just break another perfectly good axle.

=8-)

Cognoscenti

You are looking at less than $20 (retail) in parts to fix the wheel. I would suggest trying another shop because it shouldn't be more than 30min. labor.

IanHelgesen

None of this is difficult to fix yourself, as long as you know how to repack your hubs and true a wheel (if you don't, these are good skills to have and not difficult to learn). Parts (axle, spoke, bearings, grease, possibly new cones) and tools (cone wrenches and spoke wrench) can be had for under half what that shop was quoting you.

Bike Lane

Thanks for all the help. Looking online, I found the parts I need are quite reasonable indeed. Although I do not know how to true a wheel or fix a hub off-hand, these will be useful skills to learn for recurring repairs. Perfect time to educate myself. I should look at buying a toolkit for the job even though I was thinking of winging it with my fathers random selection of apparatuses and mechanisms. Thanks again.

davidad

Get just the bike specific tools that you will need. Cone wrenches, a freewheel puller, and the proper spoke wrench. As you get more experience, get more tools.
https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=48
https://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=105

bjtesch

I've replaced axles lots of time on my wheels. It's a little messy but not that hard to do. It does require some specialized tools, grease, etc.

Bike Lane

[QUOTE=davidad;10859700]Get just the bike specific tools that you will need. Cone wrenches, a freewheel puller, and the proper spoke wrench. As you get more experience, get more tools.

Thats a much better way of going about it. Absolutely.

Crankycrank

+1. Absolutely essential after a broken axle. They may already have been misaligned causing the break although on the older freewheel hubs broken axles are not uncommon.

ironwood

Wheels mfg makes a variety of Shimano compatable axels and cones. There might be an alignment problem, but axels bend and break with heavy use, but the problem is more common in hubs designed for freewheels than those for cassettes.

Gonzo Bob

It isn't hard and you can just replace it yourself. Shimano rear axles are M10x1. You can get one here https://www.loosescrews.com/index.cgi...d=232051417642 A 130mm OLD Shimano hub (typically 8, 9, or 10sp but some 7sp road hubs are 130mm) needs a 141mm quick release axle and a 126mm OLD hub (6sp and most 7sp) needs a 137mm QR axle.

Since you will have the axle assembly apart, this would also be a good time to inspect the cones and look at replacing them if they are pitted.

I broke a rear axle on my 1986 Dura-Ace (freewheel) equipped bike a few years ago and I weigh only ~150lbs. But the bike/wheels had >100,000 miles on them (plus we have alot of potholes in MN