busted 4 spokes in 2 months - pompino

mushi123

Hi all;

I bought my pompino two months ago and have been commuting in London (10 mile journey each way) around three times a week. I am 6 feet tall and 165 pounds.

I bought my pompino second hand. The guy who sold it to me said he put only a few hundred miles before deciding to get rid of it. He mainly used it to get fit. He seemed like a decent guy.

In the last two months I have broken 4 spokes, all of them on the same area (really close to one another) of the back wheel. Every time I change my spoke the wheels are good for a couple of weeks and than another one is broken. I don't go on the curbs and I don't think think I am doing anything wrong. Is this normal? I know that the pompino doesn't come with the best wheels but isn't this to much?

For some time now I am thinking of getting a new wheel. I was reading a post the other day saying that I could attempt to build my own wheels for less than 65£

System Ex rear hub ( eg from bonthrone) £25
Maxic rim (from chain reaction?) £15
Spokes £15
lock ring £3

It's easier than you think - just make sure you have plenty of tension

Or maybe I should get it re dished?

I am really lost. Any advice would be greatly appreciated

cheers

mushi

Pippen33

I've had the same problem on stumpy. Only its the front wheel, and its the nipples which are failing. More likely from powerful brakes.

mushi123

In my case its the nipples to but I doubt its the breaking because, I don't have a back brake and my brakes (original cantilevers supplied with the bike) are pretty bad at breaking Also, today I remember braking the nipple while I was going fast.

Pippen33

But not forgetting that nipples are more likely to fail on bikes with powerful braking systems

rustychisel

Cheap poorly built wheels in the first place is the likely culprit. Very likely.

Your cheapest solution would be to buy a whole set of new spokes and unlace the wheel and rebuild it from the ground up, properly. It's not hard, especially if you have another wheel you can copy the lacing pattern from.

Your original wheel will, in all likelyhood, carry on breaking spokes as readily as you have them replaced, because of the variation in spoke tensions and the fact they weren't stress relieved in the first place.

So, read up on the art of wheelbuilding (see Sheldon Brown's site, for eg) or get a competent bike shop to do it for you. Buying a whole new wheel seems costly and largely unneccesary.

graham_g

I'd agree with Mr chisel - just get it rebuilt with new spokes somewhere decent. Using the original hub and rim it shouldn't cost more than £30 odd.

piedwagtail91

i had a problem with spokes breaking. usually a couple of weeks after replacement.i lused loctite on all the nipples after trueing and retensioning all the spokes.i know it's tempting fate but the wheel has been ok since.

rustychain

I'm afraid what you are suffering is a result of poor workmanship (of sorts). The Pomp wheels were (are?) machine built and mine were a nightmare. I'm the same height as you, but quite a few pounds heavier. I had spokes breaking all the time, mostly at inconvenient times (eg 30 miles from home and no prospect of a pick up).

I tried having the wheel re-tensioned, but this didn't work. So I got it rebuilt with new spokes and it's been going strong ever since (a few thousand miles by now). No need to even true the wheel, despite my off road adventures!

I finally managed to get the cost of the rebuild out of On-(N)One, but it was a struggle!

Rusty

Liability

yep, get it re-built- cheaper(and safer) in the long run.
happened to me with my pomp within the first 6 months of buying it. very frustrating but then it was a 375 quid bike all in and brand new.

mushi123

Do you guys have any idea how much is it to rebuilt? also I live in London can you guys recommend a good place to do my rebuild

cheers for all the valuable inf

mushi

yoadius

It's around £35 for a shop to do it, depends on what spokes you use aswell.

Croxted Avenger

This was a common problem on the xmas '05 pomps I believe. I did about 400 miles on mine before a spoke went pop. Had it replaced but it went pop again a fortnight later. Both spokes broke at the hub.

I was tempted to go for a respoke but instead went for a large flange ambrosio hub with ambrosio evolution wheel built by Harry Rowland for £85 - a great wheel.

mushi123

Went today to condor cycles in London and ordered a new wheel. Condor Hub, DT 1.2 Rim and 3 cross spokes all for 98£ at the beginning I was going to go for cpx33 (it would have been 10£ less) but the guy there convinced me otherwise.

btw the shop has some amazing stuff, I was amazed at the things they got.

mushi