slammer66

I apologize for my ignorance in advance. I've been biking for about 4 years and had good luck with equipment. Now both bikes are down, I'll discuss my road bike for this thread. This morning I heard a bad sound and when I stopped one of the spokes had come loose from the top and was clogging up the works. I was about 8 miles from home and couldn't get it off so I wrapped it around so that the wheel would turn. In addition to the spoke being off the wheel was warped and dragging on the pincher brake. The bike is a roughly 10 year old (I think) LeMond Buenos Aires with the 700 x 23c Bontrager Race Lite rims. Is this a situation where the wheel needs to be taken to a shop and fixed or is this a situation where I need to replace the rims, and if so what rims would be appropriate? I consider myself a casual rider usually riding about 175 miles a month so price would be a factor obviously but I don't want to throw good money after bad either.

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smd4

Sounds like you just need to have the spoke replaced and the rim trued. A shop will be able to handle no problem and shouldn't cost too much at all.

alcjphil

A picture of the situation would be a great help and since you have more than 10 posts you are able to include one. A bike mechanic will be able to tell you if the wheel can be repaired. When you say that the spoke came loose at the "top", which end is that? spokes can break at the rim or the hub, not the top or bottom

Iride01 

If you have any bike shops near you, then take your wheels to them and let them check them out. Usually if they don't have to replace anything they don't charge but a little bit. But now they have to replace at least that spoke. So you might have to take a hit for not dealing with the wheel issues sooner.

Likely you had some loose spokes on your bike you weren't paying attention too and some of the others were carrying too much of the load. Even in a wheel that runs fairly true, you can have under tensioned and over tensioned spokes. Neither being a good thing.

slammer66

The shop is a 45 minute drive unfortunately, but I'll take both wheels in to get them checked. This bike was in that shop about a month ago for a "tune-up". Should that have been checked ?

slammer66

oh, and it came loose from the rim. the hub end it is attached with an L shape on the end that goes in a slot. I could not remove the spoke so I had to bend it around some other spokes to get home

Iride01 

Depends on the shop and the reason it was in the shop. Some might just claim a tune up is just adjusting the shifters. Others might look at everything just so they can let you know that there is more to be done.

However for you it's as simple as just grabbing a pair of spokes between thumb and forefinger and squeezing them to assess how loose or tight they are compared to others pairs of spokes. Some like to pluck the individual spokes and listen. Do this every now and then when you are having special moments with your bike, like cleaning it or admiring it.

And still, my suggestion might not have been the reason. It's only one reason of several why your spoke broke. I haven't had a spoke break since I was a kid 45 years ago. And that was a stick that got in the wheel.

smd4

The way he wrote it doesn't sound like it "broke" at all. He says it "came loose."

slammer66

I also have a Trek DS1 that I bought new. It's been an absolute tank. I use it more for riding recreationally, like when we are on the road with the camper or at the beach or something. I also ride it to the gym in the small town where I live because I can wear regular shoes. It's never had a problem until about a month back. Got a flat on the rear tire, did my first combat tire change (my route takes me well into the country) and I got about 3 more miles when the replacement went flat. Got home, found some sort of almost unseeable metal twig or something in there. Put new tube in. Next ride, flat again, checked tire again, found nothing. put in new tube. Got one ride in and second ride flat again, once again I found a little metal wire. Decided the tire was cursed, Ordered new tire, waiting for shipment. Is there anything on the rim itself I need to look at that could be causing flats.

slammer66

Iride01 

Came loose is the same as broke to me. It might be that the spoke pulled out of the nipple and stripped the threads as it did so. And that to me is broken.

And if it came loose from the hub flange, then something is definitely broken.

genejockey 

Yep, that's what a broken spoke looks like.

The shop should be able to replace the spoke and true up the wheel. Spokes break sometimes, and even if the shop had trued the wheels, since the spoke wasn't broken yet they wouldn't have seen it.

pdlamb

To get back on the road, take it to your shop. Last time I did that I paid $20 for a new spoke and labor (spoke replacement and truing the wheel). That break in the middle of the spoke looks like something hit it or scored it, since that's not where most spokes break.

I'd had problems for a while, so I ended up buying "The Bicycle Wheel" by Jobst Brandt, a spoke wrench, truing stand, and eventually a tensiometer. Read the book first (skim over some of it the first time through), and you'll understand why spokes break. I've been truing, tensioning, and stress-relieving my own wheels for more than a dozen wheels now. Even after an errant derailer (hanger) led to replacing 9 spokes on one bike, I'm running out of broken spokes -- they're so useful for things you'll never think of! It looks uneconomical to buy all those now, but at $20 a pop, I've saved enough to buy a new bike. Or at least a pair of good shoes, several nice bibs, and maybe a GPS.

Many if not most "wheel men" at local bike shops only do one or two of the three things you need to do to build or restore a wheel for long life. Truing? Sure, they all do that. Tensioning? Uh, it doesn't wobble, isn't that enough? (NO!!) Stress-relieving the spokes? Blank looks are all too common. You'll never really know what the LBS wrench does (although you can check true and tensioning when you get home). DIY and you'll know it's done right.

Maelochs

This sort of thing often happens to people who ride but don't do much with their bikes otherwise .... no one will tell you what to check periodically, like the condition of cables, or the tension of the spokes. When things get bad and are left unrepaired, they get worse and worse until ... as in this case .... something minor actually breaks.

As people have said, in all likelihood you just need the spoke replaced and the rim trued and tensioned. I think my local shop would charge about $75 .... no clue where you are or what the cost might be, but even if you buy a new wheel, you would want to take it in a get it tensioned after a week or three.

If it is a front spoke you can easily replace it yourself, but you need to know the spoke length. if it is a rear spoke you will likely need to pull the cassette ..... and in both cases it would probably be wise to have a shop true and tension both wheels.

Once the wheels are again straight and round, you can keep track of them just by tapping each spoke---they all should make about the same sound. if a spoke is loose it would ring with a lower pitch, so you could tighten it yourself or at least know it needed attention.

Once the wheels are right, they should last for a long time .... years, if they are built well.

alcjphil

By replacing the rims do you mean replacing the wheels? A bicycle wheel is made up of a collection of components. The terms rim and wheel are not interchangeable. Using one when you mean something else causes confusion. Changing a rim requires that a new compatible rim be chosen then the spokes can be transferred to the new rim creating a new wheel

biker128pedal

I have a set on Bontrager Race wheels from an old Madone like those. You must be light. I cracked two rear rims. The first was warranted. The second I just splerged for a set of Bontrager Aeolus 5 rim brake wheels. Anyway I think those wheels us Sapin bladed spokes. The shop may have to ordered some. But an easy fix and won’t have to take the tire off if the broken piece of spoke can be unthreaded from the nipple.

I’d keep the bike going with a new spoke and contemplate a new carbon wheel set in the future.

slammer66

This is what I get for being extraordinarily lucky. I've ridden thousands of miles and before the last two weeks had 1 tire pop due to a nail in a bike lane no less and I was half a mile from the bike shop I bought it at so I walked down there and had them fix it.

VegasTriker

You may not need a new rim. When you break a spoke it releases the tension on the rim at that point and the rim will no longer be true. If you spin the wheel you will see how badly that has affected the rim as it appears to move side to side at the point where the spoke is missing. Since you have rim brakes, it doesn't take much for the rim to rub on the brake pads at the point where it is out-of-true. The bike shop can tell you for sure simply by rotating the wheel. Once the spoke is replaced and the wheel is trued again in a truing stand it might be good as new. If so, you will be lucky as the charge should be the cost of one spoke and having the wheel trued.

You had the bike serviced recently. Is the spoke breaking in any way the fault of the bike shop? Not likely unless the mechanic over tensioned that particular spoke. If the brakes were working correctly when you took the bike in to the shop, there would be no reason the mechanic would mess with the spokes. If it was out-of-true and the brakes were rubbing, then the mechanic would attempt to true the wheel so the brakes worked right.

alcjphil

I have to say that if you have ridden thousands of miles without incident you have been on borrowed time for awhile. Learning how to maintain your bike isn't difficult even if you have to lean on professional help from time to time. first thing to learn is to keep your bike reasonably clean. That doesn't mean that a speck of dust on it requires you to clean every nook and cranny that you can find, but you would be surprised how many problems you can find just cleaning your bike. A loose spoke? you would find it while wiping dirt off the spokes. A hub that needs attention? You would find that if you remove your wheels from the bike and while cleaning the greasy bits around the hub axle. A worn tire? you would see that while cleaning your wheels. Learning to maintain your bike can allow you to ride with more confidence knowing that the major points of failure have been inspected

Lombard

Oh my. Those look like the infamous Bontrager paired spoke wheels of the 2000-aughts. Those rims were notorious for spoke hole cracks. If there are cracks, the wheel will have to be replaced. I would get out a magnifying glass or have your shop go over those to be sure you're not throwing good money after bad.

VegasJen

As it happens, last year I broke a hub on a Race Lite rear wheel. The spokes are still good. Happy to mail you all the salvageable spokes from the rim if you want. Just let me know.

slammer66

Well that was part of my original question, if this should be repaired or should I get new wheels. if I were to replace them, what would be a reasonable set of road tires.

Desert Ryder

So, in my instance, I contacted a couple of close local shops asking what an estimate would be to replace a broken spoke on a 26" MTB rear rim (non-cassette side) and true it.
Estimates started at about $50 and up for truing, 1 spoke, and 1 nipple. For me, it was a price shock. I was thinking about $25 but no. Since this was a project bike I just found a complete used bike for the rims and tires.
I will keep the original rim and if I find a cheap rim I will use a spoke off of it and then true the rim.

SurferRosa

At a bike shop, a spoke is $1-2. A Park spoke wrench on eBay is under $9 shipped.

Truing stands are free if you can rest your frame upside down.

alcjphil

What do tires have to do with this? Just install the ones on your current wheel unless they are worn out