matthewayres

So last spring I was doing a long ride, and somehow got ketchup all over my rear wheel (EA70s), both on the spokes and rim, as well as a bit on the frame. Well, I didnt think much of it, and wound up cleaning it off about a week later. well a few months later, I went down to grab my bike, and there was a broken spoke, that broke while the bike was hanging in the basement. I got it fixed, and a month later, another broken spoke while hanging. Then just the other day I broke a spoke while riding up a small hill.... ( i am 5'4", 140lbs... I dont break spokes climbing)

My question: is this wheel doomed because of Ketchup? Do I need to just get rid of it, or have it re-laced? Anyone ever heard of Ketchup (or other random things) compromising the integrity of a wheel?

Sirrus Rider

Ketchup does contain vinegar which might compromise aluminum.

phoebeisis

No way does a tiny bit of mildly acidic material damage steel spokes enough so they would fail.
Just bad luck.
Charlie

Bianchigirll 

good question, but I don't quite understand something. you were eating a cheeseburger while riding? who packs your Muset bags? LOL

what kind of wheel? steel or alloy spokes?

JohnDThompson 

And people wonder why I don't eat hamburgers.

bikeman715

just have the wheel re spoke and you be fine , but do watch them burgers. lol .

stevenc

Very well possible that the ketchup caused damage to the protective layer on the spokes. I've seen the same thing on car paint, even when the ketchup was only on there for a few hours (under a burning sun). Is there any visible damage on the remaining spokes, or on the broken ones?

Airburst

I seem to recall hearing something similar about spokes failing because the bike was being stored near a bucket of swimming pool salt in someone's garage. Apparently the stuff was giving off chlorine gas, which was attacking the stainless steel spokes in some way that goes beyond my knowledge of chemistry. If a trace amount of chlorine can do it, it's not inconceivable that the ketchup could have caused damage to the spokes.

This does beg the question of how the heck you got the ketchup on the wheel, though....

matthewayres

I was not actually eating a hamburger while riding, and I have no idea how I got ketchup all over my bike, we were way out in the country... Any ways, these are Easton EA70s with DB stainless spokes... If it was just once that would be one thing, but this has happened three times, twice while the bike was hanging safely in the basement with the other bikes 7 in my family. I think I am the market for a new rear wheel... i dont want this to happen when I am 60 miles from home in the middle of nowhere...

Kimmo

Stainless steel requires no protective layer.

That rings a bell... chlorine can be nasty stuff.

I was thinking of the electrolytic jailbreak thing; maybe somehow the bike got a static charge on it or something...? Don't think that'd work on stainless though.

radshark

Sound like you, or the person next to you, ran over some ketchup packets...

I think the spokes and ketchup is an unfortunate co-incidence. Was the bike hanging by the wheel?

Burton

If you`re getting a run of broken spokes - the wheel needs to be looked at to determine why. The ketchup has nothing to do with whats going on.

michael69

what brand ketchup was it? del monte ? hienz ? burger king? or mc d's cheeseburger? did you order xtra ketchup? I ate a whole taco bell bell grande meal once while riding. I'm just kidding .

dabac

Doesn't matter squat, unless possibly if the hook is ridiculously sharp and manages to nick/bend the spokes as the bike is being hung or retrieved. The inward tension of each spoke is something like 6-10 times bigger than the outward load caused by hanging a bike from its wheel.

Bianchigirll 

I think it is time to call Myth Busters

bobn

Are you sure it was ketchup and not something more corrosive?

fietsbob

there is the tale about the straw that broke the camel's back,
maybe '1 hamburger over the line'.

sung by a reformed older and heavier Doobie Brothers band ?

davidad

Katsup shouldnt eat Stainless steel. You have a problem with the wheel build. At any point did you drop your chain. With the spoke protector removed the chain can get between the large cog and the spokes cutting a notch into the spokes. This makes a stress riser and the spokes will fatigue and break there.

achoo

Vinegar + different metals = galvanic corrosion

ratdog

I agree. OP, where at the spokes breaking?

Al1943

What part of the spokes broke?
Spokes with insufficient tension break in the "J" bend at the hub flange.

FBinNY 

There are many grades of stainless steel, with various degrees of corrosion resistance.

A few years ago a Taiwanese spoke company produced a large batch of spokes prone to the exact type of failure described by the OP. This grade was unusually vulnerable to exposure to chlorine ions, or salt - sodium chloride.
Chlorine would render the spokes about as brittle as glass (or raw spaghetti).

I had the good fortune to but two mid-low level bikes from a company (which I won't name) that had wheels built with these spokes. Those bikes reside in Cozumel, Mexico possibly the worst place on earth for those spokes, and within a year 100% of the spokes were embrittled, showing visible black marks where they would fail if flexed.

So I'll venture that the OP had spokes with a similar problem, and it wasn't the vinegar or tomato in the ketchup that killed them off, but the salt.