It started off nice enough. I made the 14 mile jaunt to work, and found a bi-modal bike/bus commuter friend of mine. We had some coffee, he talked about TdF (ugh) and I talked about plans and goals for August. I ran some errands on bike over lunch. No event.

About 3 miles into my homeward commute, I notice I have a broken spoke on my relatively new road bike. I go to tie it off so it doesn't thrash all over the place and kill my panniers or drivetrain. I ghetto-true my wheel to take up the slack for the missing spoke so I'm not rubbing the brakes. I get home no problem.

I toss the panniers and lights on my hybrid, then take the wheel to my LBS to have them fix it up for me. I get back home, once-over my hybrid, then take it for a 5-mile-long grocery run to make sure the panniers work on it and all that. About halfway home, I notice a broken spoke on my hybrid too. No biggie, I actually have a spare spoke for it, and it's on the non-drive side of the rear so it requires no special tools. I get home and find TWO broken spokes. Of course there had to be two, since I only have one spare spoke.



My hybrid has MTB wheels with city slick tires on it, so I just stole the rear wheel off my MTB and swapped tires. But still. What a nightmare!

that sucks man. good luck gettin that taken care of

That blows. It Happend to me recently and I needed spokes for 27" wheel so I could get home. You should have seen the look on the tech's face when I walked into the closest shop, which sells only high end race bikes and asked for a spoke for a 27" wheel. I ended up having to take the train home.

last time that happened to me, I ran with the broken spoke ducttaped to another spoke for 6 months.

I can afford to have it fixed or even buy a new wheel, so there's not much point in leaving it ghetto-rigged. Heck, next paycheck I could afford to buy a new mountain bike if I wanted to, but I think having 3 bikes of my own and one for the wife is enough for now.

It's not really about the money or even the inconvenience, it's just really annoying.

That sucks man! I'm learning to build my own wheels now and I hope I get the spoke tension even enough to keep them strong. I'm doing that part by tone but I'm having Paul of Morningstar Tools make me a dial truing gauge that I can use on bmx to 29ers.

At least you didn't have to walk!

I'm so ghetto, when I have to true my wheels, I just leave it on my inverted bike and tighten the brake adjustment knob until it rubs, then work it out. Tighten some more, work it out, tighten some more, etc. until it's even all the way around.

I'd like to learn to rebuild and eventually lace my own wheels. Maybe one of these days.

OK, I feel better about busting a spoke every now and then.

I used to do that, now that I have disc brakes and wheels and with the arch of the suspension fork in the way I said screw it. I didn't want some cheesy truing stand either. This gauge bolts onto the dropout with wheel in place.

For my wheelbuild I followed my Zinn mtb repair book to lace the wheels for front disc brake. There's actually a certain way to orient the heads of spokes for optimum strength. I also followed Mike T's Tech Info page for tensioning and helpful tips. You really only need a spoke wrench, screwdriver and some inside calipers. I tried vernier calipers I had but they didn't work so great.

Mike's page was really inspirational for me realizing that I could do this, and likely build a better quality wheel than a shop will because I can put unlimited time into making it as perfect as possible.

I have a runout gauge and a high-accuracy digital caliper (inner and outer) both used for engine/transmission rebuilds and the like... which might work for dish. Hmm. Thanks for the linkage.