Broken spoke day...

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stuarttunstall

Senior Member
Location
Yorkshire Wolds
After two days off due to crap weather I managed to get out this cold, and still windy morning...

NOT a good day, had a spoke break in the rear wheel
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:sad: so need to get that fixed now... At least I managed to fasten it out the way and ride home, wheel has a slight buckle now
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Well after this mornings little incident with the broken spoke, the usual shop in York could not do it until next Wednesday .. So, I called Evans... "We have no qualified service staff in for a couple of weeks or so, until we get back to normal"

Great when you website states you have!

Then I remembered a small bike shop in Driffield, East Gate Cycles... gave them a call, just dropped the wheel off and I can collect this time Thursday... there closed on Wednesday's .... Great service..

The shop was a bit empty, he does a lot of second hand bikes and cant get any!

So I can get back on it Thursday afternoon
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Funny enough on the 6th May 2019 in the exact same spot on the road/ride I had 3 spokes go on the same wheel, but it was too buckled to ride, at least this was only one spoke and less of a buckle so i rode home ok.....so is this an annual event lol

Think it may be down to the state of the road, bad filled pot holes which are like speed humps which I do try to avoid at all cost and if I can't ride over slowly ... so I suppose just shock :sad:

Stuart
 
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davidphilips

Veteran
Location
Onabike
Best thing is just buy a spoke and fit it yourself, some flat bladed spokes can be expensive and if you are not careful with tubeless ready rims and the nipple gets lost inside the rim it can be fun but really a spoke is normally very easy and quick to change i have even used spokes of wheels that where scraped with worn rims. On the R/H rear the cassette may have to be removed but other than that its quite easy.
 
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stuarttunstall

stuarttunstall

Senior Member
Location
Yorkshire Wolds
The problem I have is I do not know what I am doing, do not have the tools or the equipment/skill to true the wheel.. so I leave it to the experts, at least it should get done right...

I appreciate the job may be easy but for what he is charging it's not worth it,, reckons on £10 which is not bad.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
I once unclipped inwards and caught a heel between a spoke and the chainstay, it actually chipped the heel of my shoe and bent the bladed spoke of my Ksyrium SL. Thought no more of it until some months later riding to Otley when it snapped with a loud bang and the wheel went straight out of true. Took it to Chevin Cycles where I got the expected reply: "Sorry we can't get those spokes, you need a new wheel."

That was red rag to a bull so I marched out. On the way home stopped at Ilkley Cycles where the mechanic, a nice guy named Joe, rummaged in a cupboard, found a spoke and handed me the re-trued wheel five minutes later, refusing to accept any payment. Ilkley Cycles closed down soon after... maybe they weren't making enough money.
 
I once unclipped inwards and caught a heel between a spoke and the chainstay, it actually chipped the heel of my shoe and bent the bladed spoke of my Ksyrium SL. Thought no more of it until some months later riding to Otley when it snapped with a loud bang and the wheel went straight out of true. Took it to Chevin Cycles where I got the expected reply: "Sorry we can't get those spokes, you need a new wheel."

That was red rag to a bull so I marched out. On the way home stopped at Ilkley Cycles where the mechanic, a nice guy named Joe, rummaged in a cupboard, found a spoke and handed me the re-trued wheel five minutes later, refusing to accept any payment. Ilkley Cycles closed down soon after... maybe they weren't making enough money.
Back in 2008 I went on a cycling trip to Sardinia and one of our tour broke a Ksyrium spoke and was told the similar but I don't think there was many lbs on the island. The guide lent him a temporary wheel and reckoned he'd get a new spoke in the UK.
 
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stuarttunstall

stuarttunstall

Senior Member
Location
Yorkshire Wolds
I have to say Eastgate Cycles, a small shop that does repairs and sells some components and second had bikes are fantastic!

As I said I called a couple of usual places and got told next week at the earliest, Eastgate told me Thursday if I dropped the wheel off today..

No problem, happy with that..

4 hours later he called to say it was done, replaced two spokes and trued the wheel, £10 .... now thats what I call service...

http://www.eastgatecycles.com

Now, why just like last time am I nervous about going out tomorrow morning lol ...
 
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rjacobs

Regular
I have had 3 spokes break in the last 2 months. All on the same bike. 2 on one rear wheel and one on my 'race zipp 101 wheel'.
All replaced by LBS.
Could this be an issue with my frame rather than the wheels OR is it more likely bad luck? I'm approx 80kg and dont recall hitting any significant pot holes.
Any tips or suggestions appreciated!
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
Eastgate Cycles . . . replaced two spokes and trued the wheel, £10 .... now thats what I call service.
I'd call that 'undervaluing their time and expertise' or 'generating customer goodwill'.
Could this be an issue with my frame rather than the wheels OR is it more likely bad luck?
Issue with frame: no. Bad luck? Probably not that either.
How many spokes on the two wheels? Distance ridden?
Assume both rear wheel spokes that went were on the drive side? If you take off the cassette, is there any damage to the other spokes (the ones that haven't yet broken)?
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
I have had 3 spokes break in the last 2 months. All on the same bike. 2 on one rear wheel and one on my 'race zipp 101 wheel'.
All replaced by LBS.
Could this be an issue with my frame rather than the wheels OR is it more likely bad luck? I'm approx 80kg and dont recall hitting any significant pot holes.
Any tips or suggestions appreciated!

3 spokes in 2 months suggests a poor quality build if it's a new wheel. 80kg is not heavy. Might be worth getting bike shop to check and possibly rebuild.

Unless you wish to have a pop yourself. Plenty of online resources, but it can seem like a dark art if uninitiated.
 

rjacobs

Regular
Thanks for the reply. Two for sure were drive side on some mavic cx22 ( I thinks that's the model - bog standard wheels, done maybe 2k miles) and not sure about the one that went on the weekend (zipp 101) as i took straight into LBS, who weren't overly helpful but wanted to get it repaired so I dont have to ride my expensive ride in the rain!
 

rjacobs

Regular
3 spokes in 2 months suggests a poor quality build if it's a new wheel. 80kg is not heavy. Might be worth getting bike shop to check and possibly rebuild.

Unless you wish to have a pop yourself. Plenty of online resources, but it can seem like a dark art if uninitiated.
Yes, I've used LBS as assumed by using a professional it might prevent the breakage.
Although currently not repaired as they said they might not be able to source replacement spokes, which if this is the case I'll find on ebay and use YouTube to learn!
 

Moodyman

Legendary Member
Trouble is, the odd breakage is not unusual. But, several in quick succession, suggests the wheel was not right from the off.

So, when one breaks, the remaining are under more strain and give up prematurely. And, so on.

Best thing then is to rebuild wheel.
 
Thanks for the reply. Two for sure were drive side on some mavic cx22 ( I thinks that's the model - bog standard wheels, done maybe 2k miles) and not sure about the one that went on the weekend (zipp 101) as i took straight into LBS, who weren't overly helpful but wanted to get it repaired so I dont have to ride my expensive ride in the rain!
Most bikes shops will gladly take your money for a repair, but what the nastier ones won't tell you is if the spokes are fatigued, they will all fail eventually, you can expect others to follow in reasonably quick succession. You might be throwing good money after bad. Better to rebuild the wheel with new spokes, or scrap it entirely. Rebuilding makes for a good weekend project if you are into DIY. You'll learn how to true a wheel, which is handy in the event you need to do roadside repairs in future.
 

Ajax Bay

Guru
Location
East Devon
One spoke break is happenstance, but two spoke breaks (same wheel, same side) is no coincidence (to misquote Ian Fleming / Goldfinger).
But these Mavic CXP 22 wheels have only done 2000 odd miles so fatigue is an unlikely cause. The rims are cheap and the ?32 spokes are probably plain gauge. But still. I hope the LBS tensioned up the wheel after it replaced the two broken spokes.
Hopefully the Zipp 101 spoke break is a one-off (after all it's only got 18 to start with).
 
AB, you say that spoke fatigue is unlikely around 2000 miles, but a badly built wheel could see spoke fatigue in only 2000 miles, right? Even if it's unlikely! Unless the spokes have suffered some trauma, I would not be replacing individual spokes if any more break.
 
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