Going with a broken spoke on the rear wheel: how far and/or how you think I can go???
 

Hi every one

I should probably post this on the mechanic forum but I like this forum a lot more because I know you guys are going the distance and have seen a lot so...

I broke a spoke on my rear wheel but I noticed it almost by accident this past week end while cleaning and lubricating the bike. I don't know how long I've been riding like that. My probleme is that I would have to leave the wheel at my lbs for a day or two to have it fixed but I hate to take the car. I prefer to wait for my vacation in mid-july. What do you think? I'm going 61 kms/day, 4 days/week.

The mecanic only work week days, they have mecanics during the week end but the last time I asked for a tubular tire the week end guy told me that it didn't exist (I literaly had to show him on Ebay) so I don't think i'll trust him with my wheel.

Thanks

After telling you "it depends", I can tell you I rode around with a broken spoke for what must have been a few months before I noticed it after I resumed riding. It felt like the turbo had kicked in after I got it fixed to.

Yeah, it depends. Are you OK for pushing your bike the rest of the way to your destination/back home/nearest bike shop when the wheel lets go?

Maybe order a new spoke (and any tools that you may need) and do it yourself?

fix it yourself for a dollar or so.

make a "z-bend" spoke, or use a fiberfix spoke.

not fixing it is probably fine, until your whole wheel goes to $h1t, and instead of the price of a spoke, its 32-36 times more expensive plus the cost of a wheelbuild...

There's no mechanical reason for the whole wheel to fail in the near future.

If you don't correct the wheel true the components are under less stress than they were before and will survive at least as many fatigue cycles unless you collapse the wheel which is easier now that it has less lateral support where the spoke is missing.

If you correct via decreased tension and live with the radial run-out (it takes more radial run-out to be noticeable as a bump than lateral run-out to cause brake rub) you'll have the same situation.

If you tighten spokes to correct it the increased tension may (rear drive side) or may not (rear non-drive side, front wheel built to less tension than it will take) appreciably decrease the number of fatigue cycles (at 750 a mile) the rim spoke bed survives although in the later case it'll be thousands of miles.

If more spokes fail it's because the fatigue life in cycles is a function of average stress (parts of the elbows in machine built wheels were never taken past their elastic limit and therefore won't survive many cycles) and magnitude of the cycle (which generally comes from your weight as the spokes unload passing the bottom of the wheel although in under-tensioned rear wheels you can have some flexing of the non-drive side spokes) and since all the spokes in a group (rear drive side, rear non-drive side, front) have lived through the same conditions they should be failing about the same time. They'll be failing whether or not you fix the problem sooner.

Buy and install a new wheel. Then have the current one fixed. Next time, swap out wheels and you won't have to drive.

Side note- most of the LBS that I've dealt with ran similar to what you described, save for the fact that even their weekend help is generally more knowledgeable than I am. The weekends are typically the busiest for bike sales, so they tend to leave the repair stands free for last minute inspections and adjustments.

Go and have the spoke measured and see if they have one. It doesn't take more tan 10 minutes to replace. Let them know it's your main ride. I'd think they'd understand.

I had a problem with the spokes breaking on my Trek 7.2 Fx. I would get up to 2-3 broken before having them repaired. The last time I took them to this little shop where the owner had a nasty reputation for being a condescending smartarse. He told me those low end Bontrager wheels had cheep spokes and recommended I let him rebuild it with better quality spokes for a hundred bucks. I took the bait, and now 1k miles later, not another broken spoke. Bought my entry level road bike from the guy, and will probably be buying my first carbon bike there too.

Didn't think about that but it's obviously a very good solution! I also think that I will get the right tool to remove the cassette so I will be able to replace the spoke by myself next time, it's on the rear wheel drive side, the only place that I can't fix for now. The only problem is that I'm not sure which tool to get to have the right one. I have one to remove the cassette on my vintage Bianchi (sunny sunday ride) but it doesn't fit on any of my other wheels. I don't want to order a tool if I'm not sure it will fit. How do I do that?

Is there a brand on the cassette? That's usually the best clue. My LBS stocks basic bike tools like splined cassette removal tools. If yours does too, that would be a good place to check. They could look and tell you which one to buy.

You have to determine if it's a cassette or free wheel and the brand.
IF a cassette, you'll need a chain whip too. Unless it's a Uniglide cassette which uses 2 chain whips and no lock ring tool.

Post here what you have.

I rode about 200 miles on a broken spoke because I was on a long ride and didn't want to try to replace it. I don't recommend it though. I knew I was going to get a new spokes/rim. If it was on my commuter, I would have replaced the spoke asap

http://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ce/sick010.jpghttp://i183.photobucket.com/albums/x...ce/sick011.jpg I make up Z-bent spokes to have on hand, STRONG as heck but i now use a tandom wheel and never use disc brakes. This spoke is sort of big for the photo.

^I forgot to say that i have instaled z bent spokes without even taking the wheel off the bike and using the old nipple^.

Thanks for all the advices!

So, initiate me here, a z-bent spoke is useful for roadside repairs compared to a standard spoke, because you can install it ass-ways, which you can't do with a conventional spoke obviously?

You are likely okay riding on just one broken spoke. However, that one broken spoke places the other spokes, especially the one directly across from it, under constant greater stress. Ride it if you must, but understand that you are riding on a house of cards.

riding on a 32 spoke wheel with a broken spoke is one thing and doing so on a wheel with 20 butted spokes is another.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=256075

A z spoke can be install either way,you cut the tail off shorter in real life.

Yes, ass-ways. The first "blade" spokes that came out in the 1970s had a so called "Z" bend like this so they could be instaled with any hub and Z bend spokes are stronger than the norm. When a regular spoke takes bad hit it has no place to go but "pop" at the bend. A Z spoke can "spring" out and then back. Yea, slicker than snake poop!

Gotcha! :beer:

+1 Any lbs/tech telling you otherwise is a lbs not needing your future business. The fact you were able to ride w/a broken spoke is a testament to the wheel build in the first place. Especially if you were hauling weight of any significance.

It's really not that hard to replace spoke/retrue wheel. What's needed is a chainwhip, cassette/freewheel tool(do a googlesearch), wrench/spanner same size as cassette tool and a same size spoke. Go to www.sheldonbrown.com for step by step instructions. Valuable resource.

The main thing is to replace the spoke and true the wheel asap, however you decide to do it.

How far you can go depends. I've had spokes break and ridden the wheel for several months. I've had spokes break and the wheel tacoed immediately.

In general. waste no time in getting it fixed. Even if you don't see any damage, the remaining spokes are suffering varying amounts of stress and it can lead to serial spoke breakage or worse.

I completely agree with this. Doing a wheel build is rather difficult, and requires quite a bit of skill. Replacing one spoke takes a spoke wrench and about 5-10 minutes. A couple of years ago, while on a long weekend ride, I brought my bike into a random bike shop with a broken spoke, and the guy there fixed it so quickly and easily that I was kind of embarrassed that I hadn't just done it myself.