Twang

essex-commuter

Well it sorted sounded like that. 5 minutes into my commute home and a back spoke went, wheel went into an instant wobble. I bent the broken spoke around some others to keep out of the way and released the back brake to stop it rubbing. I continued riding but the wheel was still rubbing on the mudguard. I had no option other than to continue...after about ten HARD miles the rubbing noise went...I'd worn away the mudguard where the tyre had touched! Called into a bike shop on the way home and asked if they could fix it, it was a cheap type bike shop and they said they didn't have anyone that knew how to do it! I mananged to buy a spoke and nipple (50p) from them and continued home.

It only took me 30 minutes to remove the tyre, tube and rim tape, replace the spoke, re-true the wheel and put the tyre back on again, sorted. While I had the rear Marathon Plus off I took the opportunity to swap it with the front one, it had 2500 miles on it and has starterd to square up by losing the tread from the centre.

My tyres are always covered my mudguards, while the wheels were off I also took the opportunity to pick out debris from the rubber. I prised out 3 sharp slithers of glass (maybe 3mm long) from the tyre, they had all gone right in to the blue puncture protection strip in the tyre. 3 definite punctures on any other tyre I reckon, Marathons rock.

Just wanted to share my commute home, it was a bit different to the norm.

Bilboben

Glad you got back safe. Have just replaced my tyres with Marathon Plus ones after reading such good reviews. Hope I get the same results as you. In thirty years of cycling I have never yet had a spoke go!!!! I guess it will be my turn soon.

essex-commuter

I do carry a lot of weight, a full up Ortlieb including full size laptop.

Must admit I am thinking of trying a Durano next, I love the Marathons but still think they feel a bit 'weird' on the road. They seem to 'track' across raised line paint...I can't explain it properly but they feel different to 'regular' tyres. If I crawl down the inside of traffic and cross yellow lines I can feel the bike go off course in a way that a normal tyre wouldn't.

PBo

essex-commuter wrote:

Well it sorted sounded like that. 5 minutes into my commute home and a back spoke went, wheel went into an instant wobble. I bent the broken spoke around some others to keep out of the way and released the back brake to stop it rubbing. I continued riding but the wheel was still rubbing on the mudguard. I had no option other than to continue...after about ten HARD miles the rubbing noise went...I'd worn away the mudguard where the tyre had touched! Called into a bike shop on the way home and asked if they could fix it, it was a cheap type bike shop and they said they didn't have anyone that knew how to do it! I mananged to buy a spoke and nipple (50p) from them and continued home.

It only took me 30 minutes to remove the tyre, tube and rim tape, replace the spoke, re-true the wheel and put the tyre back on again, sorted. While I had the rear Marathon Plus off I took the opportunity to swap it with the front one, it had 2500 miles on it and has starterd to square up by losing the tread from the centre.

My tyres are always covered my mudguards, while the wheels were off I also took the opportunity to pick out debris from the rubber. I prised out 3 sharp slithers of glass (maybe 3mm long) from the tyre, they had all gone right in to the blue puncture protection strip in the tyre. 3 definite punctures on any other tyre I reckon, Marathons rock.

Just wanted to share my commute home, it was a bit different to the norm.

some words of caution:

Did the cheap bike shop sell you the right length of spoke? If not, your wheel might be true, but the tension won't be even which could just lead to more probs in the future.

secondly, the majority of baking should come from your front brake, so don't change your worn tyre onto the front. Leave it on the rear, ride until dead, then put a new tyre on the front, and swap front to back (if it still has life).

do you hace a nipple key? if so, carry it with you, because if a spoke goes, you can usually do a temporary adjustment to get ithe wheel something like true until popper repair time....now you need a new mudguard!!!

mind you, you were lucky that the mudguard wore away, the heat from the friction might have blown your tube!

cheers

PBo

essex-commuter

PBo wrote:

two words of caution:

Did the cheap bike shop sell you the right length of spoke? If not, your wheel might be true, but the tension won't be even which could just lead to more probs in the future.

secondly, the majority of baking should come from your front brake, so don't change your worn tyre onto the front. Leave it on the rear, ride until dead, then put a new tyre on the front, and swap front to back (if it still has life).

cheers

PBo

Well it looked the right size. How would length make a difference to tension?

Mmm, I 've changed the tyres over now...maybe I will do as you said when I fit the Durano. It's still a good tyre, it has just lost some tread from the middle which in my eyes would increase the chance of a puncture which is why I preferred it on the front where it will get less of a beating.

PBo

essex-commuter wrote:

PBo wrote:

two words of caution:

Did the cheap bike shop sell you the right length of spoke? If not, your wheel might be true, but the tension won't be even which could just lead to more probs in the future.

secondly, the majority of baking should come from your front brake, so don't change your worn tyre onto the front. Leave it on the rear, ride until dead, then put a new tyre on the front, and swap front to back (if it still has life).

cheers

PBo

Well it looked the right size. How would length make a difference to tension?

Mmm, I 've changed the tyres over now...maybe I will do as you said when I fit the Durano. It's still a good tyre, it has just lost some tread from the middle which in my eyes would increase the chance of a puncture which is why I preferred it on the front where it will get less of a beating.

actually i might be being a bit thick about the tension thing - let me think about it. my instinct was that if it was too long, you have to tighten it more to get it "short" enough, so the tension is different from the surrounding spokes, even if the length is correct....

but maybe the only relevant length (as long as not so long it pokes through rim tape and destroys tube) is from the bottom of nipple to hub - the rest of a too long spoke is redundant .....damn, can't think it through.....

engineer please!!!

essex-commuter

If it's too long you would just have more thread inside the nipple, I have about 3 threads showing outside the nipple and it's not protruding inside at all. If it's too short it's too short, you wouldn't 'stretch' it into place causing more tension.

Glad you have replied about not being sure, it's been playing on my mind how tension comes into it since you posted.

rjsterry

Also, having ridden at least 10 miles on a broken wheel, you may have overstressed the other spokes, especially either side of the broken spoke, so watch out for those going in the near future. After eventually chucking a wheel that due to serial spoke failure, I now won't ride on a broken spoke unless it's a matter of life and death. The other thing that happened to this wheel was that while it could be repaired and re-trued laterally, it developed a vertical wobble, which couldn't remove and still keep spoke tension even.

ride_whenever

essex-commuter wrote:

If it's too long you would just have more thread inside the nipple, I have about 3 threads showing outside the nipple and it's not protruding inside at all. If it's too short it's too short, you wouldn't 'stretch' it into place causing more tension.

Sounds like your spokes are too short, you shouldn't have any thread protruding on the hubward side of the nipple

PBo

ride_whenever wrote:

essex-commuter wrote:

If it's too long you would just have more thread inside the nipple, I have about 3 threads showing outside the nipple and it's not protruding inside at all. If it's too short it's too short, you wouldn't 'stretch' it into place causing more tension.

Sounds like your spokes are too short, you shouldn't have any thread protruding on the hubward side of the nipple

guessing it wasn't hubward - EC never mentioned taking cassette off, which IMO always needs doing to replace a hubward spoke.

Clarion

Coincidentally, I broke a rear drive-side spoke last night. Totally unexpectedly (it's a pretty new bike - less than 2000km). The wheel went out of true immediately, and rubbed hard against the brake, unlike any other previous spoke breakage I've had.

Fortunately, I was quite near Apex Cycles in Clapham, who open late, and I got a spare (£1).

I do carry a spoke key with me, so I adjusted the tension to get me home. I don't carry a chain whip, so I couldn't replace the spoke on the spot. Swapped it in & trued it quite easily at home, without needing to remove the Marathon Plus.

Running better than ever this morning.

essex-commuter

ride_whenever wrote:

essex-commuter wrote:

If it's too long you would just have more thread inside the nipple, I have about 3 threads showing outside the nipple and it's not protruding inside at all. If it's too short it's too short, you wouldn't 'stretch' it into place causing more tension.

Sounds like your spokes are too short, you shouldn't have any thread protruding on the hubward side of the nipple

To be honest I did estimate that as I remembered seeing a couple of threads when it was in the truing stand, I will check tonight for sure. It was the drive side, cassette had to come off.

essex-commuter

rjsterry wrote:

Also, having ridden at least 10 miles on a broken wheel, you may have overstressed the other spokes, especially either side of the broken spoke, so watch out for those going in the near future. After eventually chucking a wheel that due to serial spoke failure, I now won't ride on a broken spoke unless it's a matter of life and death. The other thing that happened to this wheel was that while it could be repaired and re-trued laterally, it developed a vertical wobble, which couldn't remove and still keep spoke tension even.

It wasn't life or death but there is no public transport for quite a bit of my commute and well, I'm a seasoned biker, getting a train / bus / taxi / phoning for a lift really is a LAST resort!

essex-commuter

Clarion wrote:

Coincidentally, I broke a rear drive-side spoke last night. Totally unexpectedly (it's a pretty new bike - less than 2000km). The wheel went out of true immediately, and rubbed hard against the brake, unlike any other previous spoke breakage I've had.

Fortunately, I was quite near Apex Cycles in Clapham, who open late, and I got a spare (£1).

I do carry a spoke key with me, so I adjusted the tension to get me home. I don't carry a chain whip, so I couldn't replace the spoke on the spot. Swapped it in & trued it quite easily at home, without needing to remove the Marathon Plus.

Running better than ever this morning.

Replacing a spoke without removing the tyre is clever!

Yep, mine was running sweet this morning....with the tailwind I was absolutely silent and stealth like!

Clarion

Not clever at all. I managed to unscrew the spoke from the nipple, leaving it in place. I'm glad I didn't have to bend it into a crank to remove, or I'd have had trouble measuring it. When I got home, I threaded the new one through & screwed it into the old nipple. Perhaps it might have been better to swap for the new one, but ICBA.

essex-commuter

Clarion wrote:

Not clever at all. I managed to unscrew the spoke from the nipple, leaving it in place. I'm glad I didn't have to bend it into a crank to remove, or I'd have had trouble measuring it. When I got home, I threaded the new one through & screwed it into the old nipple. Perhaps it might have been better to swap for the new one, but ICBA.

Yep, worked out that was how you done it, still quite impressed little ol' me!

rjsterry

essex-commuter wrote:

rjsterry wrote:

Also, having ridden at least 10 miles on a broken wheel, you may have overstressed the other spokes, especially either side of the broken spoke, so watch out for those going in the near future. After eventually chucking a wheel that due to serial spoke failure, I now won't ride on a broken spoke unless it's a matter of life and death. The other thing that happened to this wheel was that while it could be repaired and re-trued laterally, it developed a vertical wobble, which couldn't remove and still keep spoke tension even.

It wasn't life or death but there is no public transport for quite a bit of my commute and well, I'm a seasoned biker, getting a train / bus / taxi / phoning for a lift really is a LAST resort!

Maybe I'm over cautious, but at one point, I was getting spokes replaced at fortnightly intervals as the break worked its way around the wheel. Once the rim went egg-shaped, it wasn't really worth hanging on to it. I'm lucky in that there are various forms of PT along my route, and some will take a bike.