realized today that one of of my spokes had come off the nipple! the nipple fell into the rim (?) i think and its rattling about it there. What do I do? I have like no bike fixing knowledge but im willing to try something if its cheap enough and if i'll get to learn to true my wheels for life! Otherwise how much will it cost to take to the LBS? also will they be able to get that nipple out so it doesnt rattle around??

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had one break on my commuter bike mid-ride earlier this year, and I was right by a shop I never go to because I think it's a bit overpriced. It cost me $16, including parts and labor. They may charge a bit more if your wheel is really out of true because of the broken spoke though (that shop has "minor" and "major" truing jobs).

Probably something around $10-20 depending on where you go.

It sounds like an easy fix though. Take off the tire, tube, and rim tape. Find the nipple, and thread the spoke back into the nipple. Tighten the nipple a bit and your wheel may possible get trued. If not, you could try to true the wheel yourself.

Be careful not to strip the spoke nipple.

You may also have to replace the nipple or spoke depending on if one is broken.

Our campus shop does single spoke replacement for free...but you pay about $10 for a quick true.

Our near-campus shop does replacement/true for about $15.

Our not-near-campus shop does replacement/true for $20.

If you go to any good shop, fork out the $20 but expect that they'll show you...pretty much exactly what ptle above has said.

Very best way for your long-term cycling health? Either be shown once or try it once on your own, learn the process, and never need a shop to do that simple of a job again.

My $0.02

Ha ha... you see the ascent here? Lol I've always suggested to young cyclist or newbies to wrenching that if you live near a college campus, you're golden. Besides the very student friendly prices with the area bike shops, you should have a bike co-op whose volunteers will teach you how to work on your bike for free.

Replacing a spoke can be a bit tricky. You have to kind of bow the spoke without bending it to get it in the right place around the existing spokes. Then of course true the wheel.

$20 bucks is what I pay, I have broken 2 in the last month.

About $1 to do it yourself. That is assuming you have the tools to do it though.

This is true. I had to fix a broken spoke on my beater mountain bike and thought this would be an excellent opportunity to learn. I couldn't figure it out and thought no way do I have to weave it through all of the other spokes but I couldn't see any other way to do it. I called a biking buddy and he told me that's how you do it! Just bend it as little as possible around the other spokes until you're there. I did it and everything seemed to work fine. I do recall it took me some time whereas a shop would probably be more confident and heavy-handed and be done in three minutes.

I'd try it yourself before I'd pay $20. I bought three spokes (bring your wheel in with you so they can measure them) and it was something like $7 total for them. Now I'm set for the next two breaks!

You need a spoke key to rotate the spoke nipple and tighten the spoke, the plastic Buddy Spokey ones are good and cheap, get the correct size for your spoke nipple.
Once you have the threads inside the nipple (bending the spoke gently), you need to reverse the nipple to engage the thread then gently tighten.
As you tighten, the rim is pulled to one side. You need to balance the tension of the spoke and the trueness of the rim. Its hard to get both perfect on a replacement. . Ping the spokes to guage the tension and use a non-metallic pointy thing against the brake blocks to guague the trueness. 1mm of trueness is OK, 5mm is what you expect from a shop.
The danger with spoke keys is being to aggressive. When I get the tension close I turn in 1/16 rotation then check again. Often you have to adjust adjacent spokes as well. Its a bit of a dark art but worth learning.

Depends on what the shop actually does.

To replace the spoke and retrue the wheel is about a 10 minute job so I'd estimate it should cost around $10.00 plus the cost of the spoke. The problem with that is that it merely returns your wheel to what it was previously. Unfortunately, what it was previously, was a wheel that's about to break a spoke.

What I prefer to do is to check and equalize the tension on all of the spokes before retruing the wheel. That's, obviously, going to take longer so it's logically going to cost more.

Incidentally, I used to try to keep a complete spoke inventory. No more. There's way too many different ones and they don't move fast enough to justify maintaining a complete stock.

$1-2 for the spoke, $10-20 for the labor.

My shop just stocks the longest spoke DT Swiss makes and a spoke cutting machine.

you're new, budget the price of the spoke and 1/2 hr for your first time. if it's drive side rear wheel, you'll have to remove the skewer and cassette as well.

you'll need a spoke wrench, cassette removal tool and a chain whip. buy those once, change spokes for life.

Hmmm....too bad you guys don't live near me....