Well, the title pretty much sums up my question. Wheel is 700c, 36 spokes.

Self-inflicted wound: I nicked a spoke when my wrench slipped while loosening the hub locknuts (I needed to service the bearings). The scratch is ~6mm long, about 1.5 to 2 inches from the hub, and is probably mainly cosmetic, but it is something you can feel with your finger tip.

I guess I'm being extra paranoid because this is a front wheel and a disc brake wheel, and the scratched spoke is on the disc brake rotor side. I have visions of the spoke snapping while braking in some catastrophic fashion that causes it to hit the fork blade, lock up the wheel (with our without ripping out just about every other spoke), and send me flying.

So if this were your bike, would you replace the spoke or just ride as is? And if I'm replacing the spoke, I presume the safest way is to de-tension all of the spokes, replace the damaged one, and then bring everything back to proper tension / trueness / etc.?

I'd take the wheel to my LBS for an opinion, but the guys there focus on road bikes and, consequently, don't have a lot of experience with disc brakes (darn city slickers ).

Thanks,
Mike

I'd just ride it.

Ride more, worry less

It isn't a problem.

+1,000 to all the above. Pretend it never happened, and so will the spoke.

I strongly doubt you nicked it enough to matter, but even if you did, it'll be thousands of miles before it's an issue. If/when it does break, a single broken spoke on a 36h wheel is a non issue. Spokes break all the time, but nobody's is getting hurt in the process.

If it really bothers you the best remedy is to see a hypnotist and block it out of your mind.

Thanks for the replies, everyone! That's the answer I was hoping for, since it saves me a bunch of work I didn't want to have to do right now. And if it were a rim brake wheel, I wouldn't even be asking the question. (I admit I still may need to see a hypnotist, though.)

Mike

I rode for years on wheels that had a bunch of palpable nicks on them - after a nitwit had messed with the settings on my Huret Titanium Duopar and ground the poor thing up in the spokes.

If I only rode bikes that were perfect, I would ride even less than I do now.
That reminds me, I really should retrue that rear wheel on bike 3

How true is true? I have three bikes that a few mm out. Brakes don't care, being the back wheel I can't see them. Until they start to upset brake function they can stay that way.

Type 304/316 stainless steels are not terribly notch sensitive IIRC. If it bothers you, however, you should know that the the spoke wouldn't be appreciably weakened by the small loss of metal, but rather by the imperfection, which could act as a stress concentrator. Simple fix is to polish the spoke smooth with 0000 steel wool. Once smooth the spike will have essentially all of its original strength unless the scratch were very deep.

I wouldn't worry. I broke spokes on my rear (disc) wheel on my MTB. The first time I didn't even notice I'd broken one, but took a look at the tyre because the back seemed a little squirrelly in the mud and noticed a broken spoke.

If you've got 36 spokes the chances are they are laced 3-cross or 4-cross, in which case if one breaks it's largely held in place by the others. The broken end will probably ping around a little but the scenario you describe sounds so unlikely you might as well worry about what happens if you're on a fast descent and your brakes fail.

I had one spoke break then lodge in the chain pulling it off. Broken spokes can be a problem. But just one isn't much of an issue. Wheel will be a tiny bit out of true.

Robert (rpenmanparker), thanks for the steel wool suggestion. Gives me the opportunity to feel like I'm doing something, even if it's just a placebo.

And contango, thanks, I hadn't thought about how even a broken spoke would be held in place by its neighbors. May not need that hypnotist, after all. (Although krobinson, you're not helping! Joking aside, was this a high spoke count wheel?)

Mike

10+plus years ago, my rear deralier lost a fight with a stick and went into my sopkes, putting a kink into one of them. I still ride that bike from time to time, still has the same wheel, still has the same spoke with the kink.

Keep in mind (everyone) that a spoke being held in place by its neighbors doesn't mean it is functional after breaking, just that it might not flop around. Lately I have been reading a few posts about people not knowing they have broken spokes and riding like that for a long time. Wut? I've broken a lot of spokes over 30+ years of active cycling. I knew immediately each and every time it happened. And every time I had to adjust the brake clearance and adjacent spokes to get home. I can't imagine how sloppy a road bike would have to be adjusted to mask a broken spoke, high spoke count or otherwise.

I was thinking that since the bike had disc brakes, the OP would hardly notice it. I only notice some of my broken spokes due to a click in sound or brake rub

Nobody said it was functional, the OP was concerned about a broken spoke flopping around to the point it because a major hazard.

The first time I broke a spoke I didn't notice until some time later (I still don't know how I did it). The second time I broke a spoke I heard a loud crack as it happened but didn't immediately realise what it was because it coincided with hitting a pothole at the bottom of a fairly fast descent. The third time I heard a crack and knew something was wrong because it was on a smooth piece of road, so stopped to check and found the broken spoke.

On a wheel with a disc brake the rim wobbling a bit doesn't make a noticeable difference. When I broke a spoke on my bike with rim brakes I did need to adjust the brakes to get home.