Breaking Spokes

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007fair

Senior Member
Location
Glasgow Brr ..
Advice please!

I have a 3 year old Giant SCR2 and am looking at replacing it once my work get organised with a C2W scheme. Its been a good bike except I have had three spokes break in the last year on the rear wheel and am wondering if its (or at least the wheels) a bit too delicate for the potholded roads around Glasgow

Are some wheels / spokes better than others and if so what should I be looking for on a new bike.

Cheers! :blush:
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Nope, the bike is fine. It will be the 'cheaper' wheels you have, and that they are likely to be 'factory built'

Treat the bike to a nice new pair of wheels when you get another bike....n+1
 

HJ

Cycling in Scotland
Location
Auld Reekie
Find a good LBS and have them rebuild the wheel, that should solve the problem, there are a few people here who can advice you on a good Glasgow LBS (or you could use the Bicycle Works, which is possible the best place to get fixed in Scotland, but it is in Edinburgh :evil:).
 

nich

New Member
Location
Beckenham
I had a single spoke failure (my first ever) last week. Totally buckled the wheel, so had to take the rear brake off to get home as it was just rubbing.

Very impressed with my local bike shop who charge £10 to fix it, and now its like new. They did however warn me that once one goes, I'm likely to get more. I don't know if this is true or not, but I did 'panic buy' (ok I was anyway) some new wheels :evil:

Went from the Alex DA16's on my Allez to some of these bad boys:

http://www.planet-x-bikes.co.uk/i/q/WPPXMODELB/planet-x-model-b-wheelset
 
fossyant said:
Nope, the bike is fine. It will be the 'cheaper' wheels you have, and that they are likely to be 'factory built'

Treat the bike to a nice new pair of wheels when you get another bike....n+1

I take it my fixie wheel was...it only lasted 300 miles and the Dawes Audax,67 miles.:biggrin:
 

RufusA

Über Member
nich said:
Very impressed with my local bike shop who charge £10 to fix it, and now its like new. They did however warn me that once one goes, I'm likely to get more. I don't know if this is true or not

My Sirrus popped 3 spokes in reasonably quick sucession before I cut my losses and bought a new wheel. It doesn't take many spoke changes at £10 a pop to match the cost of a new wheel. Sadly my LBS didn't warn me otherwise I might have simply bought a new wheel and kept the dodgy spoked one as an emergency spare!

Rufus.
 

Tim Bennet.

Entirely Average Member
Location
S of Kendal
Any spoke breakage is a sign of a poorly built wheel. There is no reason why conventionally spoked wheels should ever fail, however rough their treatment (rim failure is known, but a good wheel builder avoids using those rims with a known history of not being up to the job).

Most 'affordable' bikes come with 'machine built wheels' that have been assembled automatically without someone really skilled doing the final tensioning and pre-stressing. If you buy a bike with these wheels, have a good wheel builder go over them after a couple of rides and if they really are a good wheel builder, then that will be the end of any trouble.

Breaking more spokes after the repair of the initial breakage is a sign that the wheel wasn't rebuild properly. All that's happened is the broken spoke was replaced and sort of tensioned up until the wheel went back to being sort of round. Bike shops that tell you subsequent breakages are inevitable are really saying "we don't know how to repair your wheel properly".

Good wheels from a good builder will cost about £200 a pair. For this sort of money you can get something that is strong, light and totally realiable.
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
Tim Bennet. said:
Good wheels from a good builder will cost about £200 a pair. For this sort of money you can get something that is strong, light and totally realiable.


Harry Rowland (the DB's of handbuilt wheels I'm told) quoted my £240 for 36 spoke mavic open pro rims and ambrosio hubs

(i'm 100kg and have had a problem with broken spokes on every bike i've had!)
 

Glow worm

Legendary Member
Location
Near Newmarket
I had a spoke go on the back wheel last month then 2 more last week (same wheel). The wheel's done 7000 miles and I fear I'm going to get more. Excellent LBS fella (who fixed it both times for a tenner, second time while I waited) advised that as the wheel is getting on and has done a few miles, it's likely lots more spokes will go and some spokes are getting too rigid now. I'll get him to rebuild the wheel as soon as the next one goes.
 

goo_mason

Champion barbed-wire hurdler
Location
Leith, Edinburgh
You're lucky you got three years with those wheels. My SCR2's rear wheel was breaking a spoke a day after a week. I had to return the wheel to Halfords (where I got the bike on the Bike2Work scheme) so it could be sent back to their head office to be rebuilt by their 'wheelbuilding expert', and they proceeded to lose it!

I'd say treat yourself to a nicer pair of wheels that should last a lot longer.

After mistakenly buying a pair of Aksiums whose rims cracked in just over a year, I'm now riding on a pair of Shimano RS20s, which are great wheels (depsite having to have the faulty rear replaced after a spoke exploded within the first few weeks on the way to an 80-mile ride).
 
OP
OP
007fair

007fair

Senior Member
Location
Glasgow Brr ..
Interesting stuff thanks for all the replies. I am armed with info to take to the LBS

£200 a wheel ! eek!.. out of my range

So how much do you need to spend on a new bike to get decent wheels in the first place? That goes for tyres too I suppose
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
007fair said:
Interesting stuff thanks for all the replies. I am armed with info to take to the LBS

£200 a wheel ! eek!.. out of my range

So how much do you need to spend on a new bike to get decent wheels in the first place? That goes for tyres too I suppose

£200 A PAIR not each!

A decent shop will swap out the wheels that come with the bike and let you spec your own and charge you the difference. a vey good idea for a heavy rider looking for handbuilt wheels
 
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