So the ride home wasn't so pleasant yesterday after a STRONG crosswind pushed me into a double recessed railroad track and just enough of an angle where the double track tried to grab my tire and twist. I was quite frightened for a moment!

By the time I got home I could hear the rubbing at regular intervals on my fender, and I knew that my rear wheel was badly out of true.

Took it to the LBS this morning and said as much. The kid looks at it and declares "that's because you've got a broken spoke." So much for my keen powers of observation.

The kicker is this: There are two things I don't know how to do on bikes. Bottom brackets, and wheel building/trueing.

And I really really need to learn, because it's going to take TWO WEEKS to get my rear wheel back!

So two weeks without my favorite steed. I definitely need to learn to do this myself.

Now is the perfect time. Set aside an entire day to learn how to reubild a wheel. Doesn't the LBS have a spare wheel they can lend you till they get your wheel back?

Two weeeks? It only takes about 10 minutes to put one in. Do you have fancy blades spokes or sumthin'?

Some LBS will teach you any technique, like replacing a spoke, during normal work hours charging their hourly rate. Ask them.

I retrue my wheels and a spoke spanner is cheap enough and the only tool you need. Replacing a spoke is normally no more difficult, but can be if the Rim has gone oval or been put out in a couple of places.

Once a year I do send my wheels into the LBS for checking, retrueing and re- tension of the spokes. This is something I would not like to attempt myself and If I drop it in midweek- If they cannot do it straight away- I will be able to pick it up next day. Only thing is If I drop it in on a Saturday- I will have to wait.
2 weeks sounds as though they send the wheel away to someone else, so find another shop.

That's exactly what I was going to say!! Any time I've broken a spoke, they send me off to browse through the shop for 10-15 minutes while they fix it .... and then I'm off and running again (usually with a few extra things I've picked up from the shop, of course ..... allow a cyclist to browse through a bicycle shop, and ..... )

I finally decided to learn how to fix broken spokes and true wheels after the 90 day warranty on the bike expired a few weeks ago. During that time I unfortunantely went through 7 broken spokes! The LBS finally sent the wheel to Specialized which sent it back with heavy duty DT spokes on it and I've had no problems since *knock on wood*

Which bike do you have? I bought a Specialized Sirrus and was breaking spokes every week. I finally gave in and had a custom wheel set made..

I have the rockhopper and the problem was on the rear wheel. I bought a second wheelset which I use for off-roading...it's a factory built set, but I had a mechanic check the spoke tension and whatnot and so far so good. I was amazed with the problems I was having though, even the crappy dept. store bike that I had sitting in the garage for 10 years before I actually used it went 430 miles with no broken spokes!

A wheel in a railroad track. This could be just a one broken spoke thing and you could well need a new rim (my bet). I'd have to examine the wheel to be able to tell you for sure. This doesn't sound to me like a good first repair for learning wheelwork.

Yeah...I'm a bit worried about it. The guy at the bike shop said that it looked "fixable".

We'll see, but you're right, it might not be the best one to learn on.