Broken spoke

Nerrep
Nerrep Posts: 112
edited January 2011 in Road beginners
Just broke my first spoke, much joy. Luckily it was at the end of the ride, about 50m from my front door, rather than 20 miles away.

My bike came with paired-spoke Bontrager SSR wheels (the ones that look a bit like this, but with deeper section rims), and it's one of the back spokes which is gone. They've managed about 1k miles so far with very little trouble, and I'm about 92kg.

It looks like it'll cost me £15 for a "Spoke replacement" at my LBS, and I suppose my question is whether I'm going to be more likely to break lots more spokes after one has gone -- possibly in a more debilitating fashion in a less convenient location? I was planning on getting some new wheels (Planet X Model B, or Mavic Aksium probably) come the summer, so might it be better to bring that purchase forward to now to ensure maximum reliability?

Thanks,

Comments

  • tri-sexual
    tri-sexual Posts: 672
    £15 seems abit steep
    for basic plain spokes like those (ie nothing special like carbon, aero, bladed, fancy colours etc) i pay £5 in my LBS supplied ,fitted and trued-take them the wheel stripped with no tyre,tube or tape).
    spokes cost about 50p each for those, buy one and fit it yourself, not that hard for a single spoke.
    one spoke breaking doesnt mean all the spokes are on their way out, repair it and they should be fine.
  • ride_whenever
    ride_whenever Posts: 13,279
    Not sure on your costing tri-sexual, but you can't get a decent db spoke for 50p at trade any more unless you're buying them in massive bulk.

    £7.50 for a new spoke and fitting assuming you take in the stripped wheel. It'll be more if it's still in the bike and has the cassette on (especially if the cassette needs to be removed.
    Neeermad
    Carbon 456
    456 lefty
    Pompino
    White Inbred
  • owenlars
    owenlars Posts: 719
    50p for the spoke and £14.50 for knowing what to do with it! :wink:
  • racingcondor
    racingcondor Posts: 1,434
    If the mechanic is good and retensions the wheel properly you shouldn't find spokes keep breaking. Unfortunately not all go to the trouble.

    It's definitely worth saving the wheel for the sake of £15 (even if that seems expensive for the work). Then you'll have a back up set if a spoke goes on the new wheels you're thinking of.
  • Monty Dog
    Monty Dog Posts: 20,614
    £15 is actually pretty realistic as you could be looking at 20-30 minutes of workshop time: clean wheel, remove cassette (probably clean it too); remove tyre, tube and rim tape. Fit new spoke and re-true rim - paired-spoke wheels like the SSR are a bit trickier to re-tension and wouldn't recommend it for a beginner, particularly given the rider's weight, it's even more critical that it's done properly.
    Make mine an Italian, with Campagnolo on the side..

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