John_1961

Broke a spoke on the back end of my Giant OCR 3 this afternoon on my way home from work That makes the second one in two weeks. Just wondering if I can still run with it until pay day witch is this Friday. What do you guys think? I do have a Trek 820
trail bike that I can run with if I have to.

Axiom

I just fixed a broken spoke on my FX after riding on it for 5 days. Just be careful going over bumps. Make sure you stand up so you don't put all your weight on the rear wheel.

L.L. Zamenhof

I had about 6 broken spokes on my previous rear wheel. So you could probably last until Friday, depending on how long your ride is, and over what terrain.

dynodonn 

Time for some to look into upgrading their wheel sets, or at least the spokes. After getting tired of replacing spokes, I finally upgraded to a set of DT Swiss touring rims. No broken spokes since, and that's after hauling many loads of groceries back home.

Confederate

Wait until pay day? How much do spokes cost where you live? I can find them for $1. You should be able to dig enough money out from the sofa's seat cushions to buy a couple of spokes.

SouthFLpix

If it's an emergency I can see why you would chance it, but if you have another bike why not use it? I personally wouldn't risk being stranded.

Bill Kapaun

You're just asking for trouble.
You currently have a bad wheelset, that's breaking spokes at an increasing rate. (once they start, they don't quit)
You want to strain the remaining spokes even more?
Most likely you'll break the one next to it (on the hub) and maybe a 3rd. This can result in the rim getting destroyed.
Get the wheel respoked and PROPERLY tensioned before riding anymore. It'll be cheaper in the long run.
Use the other bike mean while.

John_1961

Did that this afternoon Bill made a stop at my local bike shop and had the spoke replaced if ther was a problem they would have told me so right a way
So as it is they just replaced the broken spoke and trued up the wheel. All good for now.

gerv 

Probably this... but if you have to wait... check for looseness in spokes around the breakage. If you have a spoke wrench, you could try to tighten them *slightly* without taking the whole thing out of true.

Unfortunately when the second spoke goes, you starting thinking it's a chain reaction... and that's quite often what happens.

When you get your next wheel, ride it for 50 miles, then get it re-trued and have tension checked.

I just bought a replacement wheel for my winter bike. After checking tension, I increased all spokes very slightly. Rode it 50-70 miles, then checked tension again and retrued. Even though it was a moderately cheap wheel, I expect it will last several years.

dynodonn 

I guess it's what you call "moderately cheap", plus I've found the limit of how "cheap" I can go, and my current wheel set has definitely raised the bar on my future wheel set purchases.

Bill Kapaun

Replacing "A" spoke and getting the wheel "trued" falls far short of having a wheel respoked & properly tensioned.
I'm venturing a guess that you are breaking drive side spokes?
Report back when spoke 3 goes.

old's'cool 

I concur with above opinions that your spokes are reaching end of life. Unless they're gone a very long distance or carried an unusually heavy load and/or seen a lot of bumps, there is or was at one time an underlying issue with improper or uneven tension. With any luck, the rim is still relatively fresh. The proper fix is replace and properly retension all spokes. I would carefully inspect the rim and hub for cracks, while you're at it.