SJX426 

This is analogous to the "show me your...." Threads. Often I wonder if they ought to be stickies.

I can only remember two events. Todays and one several years ago. Here is today's.

I commute to and from work every day I can. The DC Metro is "Safe Tracking," which implies that it wasn't safe before, and causes me to wonder why they subjected the public to unsafe operations. Anyway, I pick the bike based on the forecast of the weather just before I get dressed to go. Nice weather means I ride the Pinarello and the result is over, yes I will say it again, 3300 miles in the last three years.

I don't remember if I every checked the tension of the spokes but the wheels were true when I bought the bike. So I am riding home on a MUP near King ST station, for you who live in the area, and just as I get on the sidewalk headed to the station I hear this noise that sounds like a stick flipped into the wheels. First thought was that I knocked the Silca off again, so I stopped and checked. Everything looked fine and nothing like a stick was where I heard the noise.

I get back on the bike, more like take off and clip in, and continue my ride home. I start hearing this ticking sound and wonder what it is. Could be the sensor moved on the stay and was slightly hitting the magnet on the spokes. I can fix that when I get home.

About 4 blocks from home I look down at my front wheel and it is not true but wobulating. I stop and sure enough a spoke is loose at the rim end. Since I don't keep reading glasses handy, there in the bottom of the back pack with the tire repair stuff, I can't really examine the condition of what broke. Since the wheel still turned and didn't adversely impact riding or braking, I continue home.

Upon inspection the nipple broke at the base of the flair. How odd. It looks like it is chrome and ought to be brass but it looks like Al! Are there chrome plated Al nipples?

Fortunately I have the right tools and it didn't take me long to replace the nipple and true the wheel. Nearly every spoke was the same tension, within +/- 1/5 ticks on the Park tension gauge. Very minor tweaking and the wheel is true and spoke are at uniform tension. Oh, this was the front wheel.

AlexCyclistRoch

2 weeks ago, I broke a NDS while climbing a hill about a mile from home (32 spoke wheel). Opened up my rear caliper, and headed home carefully. As I climbed the hill 2 blocks from home, a second spoke broke, so I ended up putting my cleat covers on, shouldering the bike, and clopped home the last 2 blocks. That wheel looked crappy when I bought the bike....

FBinNY 

Not odd at all, and entirely predictable.

A nipple breaking like this is a classic failure that happens when the wheel is built with spokes that don't fully engage the head of the nipple.

Think of nipples as nuts, with an extension tube attached to make alignment without removing the tire possible. That thin tube that is the nipple's shank is not designed to be structural, and is much weaker than the spoke itself. So, when he spoke doesn't engage 2mm into the head, that tube is carrying more load that it can handle and will fail.



This is especially bad when the spoke ends just shy of the rim like the one at the left, above, since now all the flexing load is happening right at the weakest point. The weak spot is obvious in cross section, and he right length will engage at leas as far as th one in the middle, but the one at the right is what you really want.

In theory, you're best off rebuilding with longer spokes, but if this wheel held up a while so far, just replacing the one nipple is the right answer (for now). With any luck, the next nipple to break won' be for another year. After you've done this a few times, and notice the interval is getting shorter, consider it the beginning of the end, and build a new wheel.

BTW - you're not alone. Short sheeting the spokes is all too common, because production builders prefer this to having spokes too long and running out of thread as they tighten the wheel. So, it's convenient, but not right, and IMO not acceptable.

Fett2oo5

I received my first bike from my sister-n-law as a gift. It's a 15yr+ Klein road bike, that never really fit her, and she hasn't used in many years.
I'm SUPER excited to have any bike that I can go ride with my son (6yo)
So we went out the first clear night to the local school parking lot. It was awesome to ride with and along side my son the first time.
He was watching me ride next to him and I guess was so focused, he veered into me; I couldn't stop soon enough, his pedals got caught in my front wheel; bending many spokes and completely pulling out 2 of them. So badly that it bent the wheel, and deformed the holes. I still have them but was told they wouldn't be able to be fixed.
Ended up buying some Shimano wheels.

iab

I broke a spoke on the way home yesterday. Hit a pothole, heard a ping and it broke at the elbow.

Had the right size in my stash, fixed it last night. Rode today to work and back.

Do I win for most boring broken spoke story?

SJX426 

@FBinNY - Your graphic is great! Your are right I will have to assess next steps. The rims braking surface may wear our sooner than needing to replace spokes! It looked great when I bought it but now they are getting really worn. I have several NOS Tubular rims I am wanting to lace up but I have found the Vittoria Corsa's to be the best clinchers I have used.

My other story is about the Colnago Superissimo I purchased back in 2009. I started riding it a lot when I was out of work. When I did get a 6 month gig in Cornelius, OR west of Hillboro, I started bringing it to work to take on rides during lunch. They were about 10 to 15 miles. Hadn't ridden out there much so it was fun. On the last ride, as I was headed back a mile from work, a spoke broke. It was a 32 holer but he rim was too deflected to even rotate in the frame. Had to walk back without cleat covers. I think it was on the drive side and at the bend on the flange.

After getting it home I discovered that the rear wheel was laced with both straight gauge and DB spokes! I decided that was not a wheel worth riding on so disassembled it and compared spokes all around. Discovered two lengths, DS and NDS with the mixture on the DS. I think there were two spokes that were straight gauge. I ordered the Park tension gauge at that point after unsuccessfully building wheels with C&V Rigida 1320 noodles. The LBS in Beaverton had one of the expensive spoke cutter/thread forming tools (Phil Wood?). They made me two of what I needed. The wheel has been good since.

old's'cool

v.cool deep dive info, FB.
I never thought about it that deeply before, but makes perfect sense.

Narhay

I dunno. I heard a loud ping about 20m from my garage one morning. Broken spoke rear drive side. I put the bike back on the rack and took another bike.

gugie 

First bike tour was down the California coast. I started in San Luis Obispo, destination San Diego. I broke a drive side rear wheel spoke just outside of San Simeon. I was able to make it to the campground, and worked on getting the wheel trued up enough to make it to a bike shop, but broke another spoke doing so. The next morning I found that if I stood on the pedals and leaned to one side the wheel wouldn't rub on the chain stays. I rode that way all the way into Pismo Beach, with a lot of stops. By the time I got there the only shop in town was closed, so I camped out and came back the next day. I think the guy charged me $8 to replace two spokes right on the spot.

From then on I always brought spare spokes when touring.

Velocivixen

Once upon a time in a land far away, bikes were a flock with spokes which didn't betray. The end.

Never had a broken spoke.

old's'cool

Ah, yes. Theoretically, at least, if the rider is svelte enough (along with other factors), the cyclic stress level in the spokes will remain low enough to rule out fatigue failure.

mountaindave 

I bought a used '97 Klein intending to take it to Houston for a summer of schooling. I wanted to know how I'd like it so I rode a century on it. Mile 99 had a hard right turn and a short descent. As I went through the turn I heard a "twang!" When the road flattened out it seemed hard to pedal. I got off, inspected and found a broken spoke. Opened the brakes and finished without incident. Replaced the spoke, pretended it was a CX bike and rode the heck out of it on the trails of Houston. Haven't had a problem since and passed it on to my brother last year. We rode together in a triathlon last summer.

davester

Back in the day, when I used to go for weeks or months on the bike doing fully loaded touring, spoke breakages were fairly common so I carried a bunch of spares. Unfortunately I think every single spoke I ever broke was on the drive side of the rear wheel. I became quite skilled at seeking out a shop where I could use their vise to yank my freewheel to replace the spoke. Perhaps if I had been as educated then as I am now about spoke tensions and wheel building quality I could have avoided all those breaks, but alas...

Cyclist0108

I've broken many a spoke, but it was only when my wife's bike fell on mine that a spoke broke on my Chris King wheel that it really worried me. I didn't ride it, so I was hoping to minimize the impact and took it to a bike shop (supposedly the best one in town). They replaced the spoke, and told me that the Sapim CX-ray spokes were "garbage" and offered to rebuild the whole wheel for me for some absurd amount, which I declined. They also decided to put some more grease in my hub, which pretty much killed the buzz. Then a second spoke broke. I took it back. Then a third, and I realized I had a problem on my hands.

I had to go to Portland anyway, so I took it to Chris King, figuring if I was going to have the wheel rebuilt anyway, I would rather pay someone to do it right, and who better than the folks that built it the first time.

To my complete surprise, they rebuilt it for me, completely for free, and even paid to ship it back to me.

This went completely above and beyond any warranty, even implied, and besides, this all started from something I did to it (well, the other bike did to it), possibly augmented by the bike shop.

Chris King Components has my undying gratitude and eternal respect. If you ever want a wheel-set, please consider them as an option.

FBinNY 

OK, you want a story --- here's mine.

Decades back, three of us were riding from NYC to Montreal, and coming though downtown Albany I laid the bike to avoid hitting a small child running across the street. Of course, I wend down on the right.

When the dust settled and the blood dried a bit, we jumped back on and a few hours I shifted the chain over the top of the cassette (bent hanger). I fixed it, readjusted the limits and we completed the trip.

Months or maybe years later I broke the first and last spoke of my cycling career, which spans 50 years and many 10,000s of miles.

The spoke didn't break at either end, instead breaking where the chain had gouged it back in Albany. There were 3-4 similarly scored spokes, which I replaced while I was at it.

End of story.

billytwosheds 

Broke a spoke for the first time the other day, on my mixte.

Could have sworn it was just a big rock my tire spit at a car, but the rear wheel went wobbly and I decided to walk the last few blocks home.

Old Ambrosio tubular mated to a C Record hub, uhg.

SJX426 

@iab - YES!
@Narhay - Among other events, having n+1 helps keep you on the road and adds projects to the winter months!
@Velocivixen - Do you check tension on every spoke on every wheel of every new bike/wheel acquisition?
@old's'cool - Ditto
@FBinNY - Thanks! I know your are fastidious about wheels.

May all our broken spokes be the result of a PO neglect/ignorance or an event beyond our control!

Speaking of which, I found a number of nipples that had been rounded enough to need replacement on both wheels. There is a queue of wheel projects which now has two additional. The rear has one nipple that a spoke wrench won't work on it. The wheel is trued as much as possible using that nipple as the reference point. The only problem with that approach is the wheel is very slightly off center. Not enough to prevent hands free riding to any degree.

Replacing the nipple was an inconvenience at most and didn't take much time. Doing the whole wheel will be a little more time consuming. When that happens, all the spokes will be replaced with DB's, the RIGHT length, as they are all straight gauge currently.

Prowler 

On one of the past spring CCRT rides I took my Raleigh Pro, camped midway on the trail and rode south to meet everyone at the West Dennis lot. Along the way I heard the same crack/ping mentioned earlier but the bike continued to ride nicely. "Probably a stick in the spokes." Got to West Dennis to tell tires and kick lies before we set out for Wellfleet.

After a while @Ed. came up to me and asked why my rear wheel was wobbling. I had not felt it but a quick glance confirmed it. "Ah, that stick, eh?" So we continued to the rest stop at Nickerson park. DS spoke, broke at the elbow. "Does anyone have a spoke wrench? I need the red one." @Ed. had one. Fortunately I true my own wheels at home and do lots of them at the LBS so I'm able to do it upside down and backwards. I torqued the adjacent spokes to bring the wheel back good-nuf, then finished the ride. No worries.

"There is a bike shop in ....... They could replace the spoke for you." Never mind. I'm not going to let some LBS OJT mechanic touch my FW or hub. I'm going home tomorrow so I'll do it at home.

Replaced it easy-peasy at home and no broken spokes again. Several thousand miles since that one break. I'm glad I learned wheel building and truing.

rhm

Nine years ago, I think, my kids were in two different schools and my wife was teaching at a third school and they all had different Spring vacations. One week of each kid's vacation coincided with my wife's, but each kid also had one week of vacation during which no one would be home. So I had the option of staying home those weeks, or finding something a little more adventurous to do. So naturally I thought "bike tour?"

The plan was to ride the tandem to my parents' house, some 200 - 250 miles away (depending on the route) with my daughter, hang out a day or two, borrow my father's car and drive back to NJ; then return later with my son, hang out a couple days, and ride the tandem home again. Three or four days of riding each way.

At this time the tandem was running a wheel that I had built with a Rohloff hub several months before. This is a Counterpoint Opus II tandem (perfectly C&V, by the way, built in 1984 or so) on which the stoker sits out front and the captain's weight is all on the rear wheel. The wheel was perfectly true, and had 400 - 500 miles on it. Well, we popped a spoke on the first day. Hasty research that evening let me plan a minor detour to a bike store the next morning, only a few miles out of our way; by the time we got there we'd broken another spoke. So the bike store replaced the spoke and sold me a dozen or so extra spokes (I had a bad feeling about that wheel by this time!) and we were on our way.

Curiously, I don't remember how many spokes I broke on that tour, but I do remember sitting on the side of the road fixing spokes in four separate locations; and I remember hearing another spoke pop about three miles from home on the last day (we just kept riding).

After that I ordered all new spokes and a tensionometer. I'd never used a tensionometer before, but I realized that I needed to up my game if I was going to be building tandem wheels. The rebuilt wheel never broke any spokes.

T-Mar

Far worse than having your spoke break is to hear the pop, look down and see your rim oscillating, only to find out that the hub flange has broken.

qcpmsame 

FIFY

FBinNY, +1 for the good concise explanation and an understandable illustration for the situation. Rare in these days, and getting scarcer by the minute,

Bill

Velocivixen

@SJX426 - quick answer is no. I do a cursory lateral and radial true, then check tensions on each side, but not necessarily every spoke. It also depends on what the bike is for. If I'm keeping it long term then yes, it gets the full service. If I'm not sure then more of a quick general tension.

ldmataya

I remember my last spoke story - was riding home at a leisurely pace on a warm spring evening after a workout on my TT bike. I see a stick in the road ahead. I'm too tired to swerve so I ride over it, except it isn't a stick, it is a small metal pipe. The front wheel flips the pipe into the chainstays where it grabs a spoke and snaps it. Either the pipe or the twisted spoke end then managed to grab the jockey cage and within half a wheel rotation snap half of the jockey cage apart, twist the derailleur and snap it off the hanger. I know it all happened in less than two wheel rotations because I was going slow and once I heard the pipe hit the chainstay I stopped. I was about 5 miles out so while waiting for my wife to pick me up I was able to coast on the flats and walk up the hills.

Replacing the spoke was the easy part, and I managed to put a new jockey cage on the Dura Ace derailleur. But I had to have Matt Appleman of Appleman Bicycles repair the carbon dropout - which he did for a very reasonable fee. And he put a replaceable hanger on.

himespau 

I need to make sure my stash is better labeled and organized than it is now. When building a wheel, I tend to buy 1-2 extra front and NDS rear and 2-3 extra DS rear, but I just sort of have them all throw in together. Fortunately, I haven't needed to dig through them yet.

corrado33

Off topic, I know, but I'd be interested in testing this. Just get a hydraulic jig and see what will break first, the nipple or the spoke. (And how much stronger the properly seated spoke/nipple combinations are.)

It's annoying though, 'cause to get the spoke to be all of the way seated in the nipple, you run the risk of getting a spoke that's too long, which will then promptly poke holes in your tube if you don't use a beefy enough rim tape. I suppose you could file them down but that's a lot of work. All I can do it put my faith in spoke calculators as I don't have the experience yet to make the right decisions myself.