Fixing spoke while on a ride

hammerite

First time I've had a spoke go on me during a ride luckily I was only 4 miles from home of a planned 60-70 miler.

If I'd been further from home it could've been a real pain in the bum. Can anyone suggest any options I could've tried as a work around to get home with limited damage?

MIsterGoof

if you've got >28 spokes
loosen the spoke either side of the broken one

alfablue

You could get an emergency spoke (they are flexible and can be fitted to the drive side without removing the cassette), or take some spare spokes and a "Next Best Thing 2" lockring remover.

hammerite

Thanks for the advice. It's the first time I've had a spoke go on me. But this is the first bike/set of wheels that I've ridden a lot of miles on.

How common is it to have a spoke go??

alfablue

Hi Hammerite

I have never had a spoke go in 14 years, probably 30 000 miles (rough guess), and that is road riding, commuting, fully loaded touring, mountain biking (not all on the same bike!), and I am a heavy rider. I have always had handbuilt wheels and I think the builds have been very good, which may explain this, plus my road bike is an audax bike with 36 spoke wheels which obviously makes them stronger. Testament to the wheel build quality is that only the tiniest of adjustments to spokes to true them have made throughout this time, and that has been needed less than once per year - well, so infrequently I can't remember! I have been through three sets of wheels due to rim wear (as could be expected) and one bad dent on an mtb rim (also par for the course). I may have just been lucky. When touring I do take spare spokes with me though (be prepared ).

Still, thats just one case, I am sure you will find a whole range of experience from frequent spoke-breakers to those that break none.

hammerite

alfablue wrote:

Hi Hammerite

I have never had a spoke go in 14 years, probably 30 000 miles (rough guess), and that is road riding, commuting, fully loaded touring, mountain biking (not all on the same bike!), and I am a heavy rider. I have always had handbuilt wheels and I think the builds have been very good, which may explain this, plus my road bike is an audax bike with 36 spoke wheels which obviously makes them stronger. Testament to the wheel build quality is that only the tiniest of adjustments to spokes to true them have made throughout this time, and that has been needed less than once per year - well, so infrequently I can't remember! I have been through three sets of wheels due to rim wear (as could be expected) and one bad dent on an mtb rim (also par for the course). I may have just been lucky. When touring I do take spare spokes with me though (be prepared ).

Still, thats just one case, I am sure you will find a whole range of experience from frequent spoke-breakers to those that break none.

thanks for that. I was worried it's something that could happen often, so was thinking of upgrading my wheels so then I've got a spare set just in case.

Will probably do that anyway, eventually, just I have other less interesting ways I have to spend my money at the moment!!

Interestingly the spoke that went was the one with my speedo magnet on, wonder if that was the cause? :?

OnTow

You don't mention your current wheel type - Low spoke count wheels generally go further out of true, due to the higher tension on the remaining spokes, and having less spokes to "take up the slack" when one goes - This is another advantage to handbuilts, which generally have spoke counts of 28 or higher (32 or 36).

caw35slr

alfablue wrote:

You could get an emergency spoke (they are flexible and can be fitted to the drive side without removing the cassette), or take some spare spokes and a "Next Best Thing 2" lockring remover.

I'm interested in the emergency spoke. Zinn talks about them but I've never managed to find one...and your link is broken!

dennisn

caw35slr wrote:

alfablue wrote:

You could get an emergency spoke (they are flexible and can be fitted to the drive side without removing the cassette), or take some spare spokes and a "Next Best Thing 2" lockring remover.

I'm interested in the emergency spoke. Zinn talks about them but I've never managed to find one...and your link is broken!

Tape a full sze spare spoke(with nipple) to your bike.

Dennis Noward

alfablue

dennisn wrote:

caw35slr wrote:

alfablue wrote:

You could get an emergency spoke (they are flexible and can be fitted to the drive side without removing the cassette), or take some spare spokes and a "Next Best Thing 2" lockring remover.

I'm interested in the emergency spoke. Zinn talks about them but I've never managed to find one...and your link is broken!

Tape a full sze spare spoke(with nipple) to your bike.

Dennis Noward

Sorry about the link, St John Street cycles did have them, and the link worked a few days ago, maybe its just a web glitch - phone them.

Taping a spoke to the chainstay is a good idea, but for a drive-side spoke (which are the most likely to break) the cassette needs to be removed, and a tool is needed for this (such as the NBT2 - Next Best Thing 2, linked above - from Spa Cycles). The Fivberfix emergency Spoke can be fitted without removing the cassette because it is a flexible kevlar cord, hence removes the need to but and carry the cassette tools.

synchronicity

Link to fiber-fix emergency spoke:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fiberfix.htm



There used to be a different one made of kevlar, but I can't find it now.

I get up to 3 or 4 spoke breakages a year, but that's for about 20 bikes in the rental fleet and they do have a fairly hard life with all the climbing.
The main culprit is loose spokes which then cause premature fatigue. I haven't has any of the mavic aksiums fail yet, nor the shimano RS20 wheelsets, if that's any indication. Low spoke counts are the worst...

alfablue

There is a lkot of info about wheels, spokes and breakages here