Advice please....

mattgardiner

Hiya,

After some advice please, I've just had a spoke break on the back wheel of my Trek 1.7 (think it's a Bontrager SSR)

Much as I'd like to use it as an excuse to buy a new carbon machine I don't think that I can justify that.

My primary concern is having something that allows me to get out for a ride tomorrow night. Secondary concern is getting sorted with something that's going to last with everyday riding bearing in mind that I'm well over 100KG.

Can anyone let me know a rough cost of replacing a spoke a rebuilding a wheel and whether it's at all likely that either harry hall or evans in manchester would do it on the same day (I suspect not).

If not what am I best off doing? Cheap replacement wheel to use whilst original Bontrager wheel is rebuilt, new single wheel or new wheelset (think I could probably justify £250-£300 to the wife for two wheels but no idea what that gets me in comparison to what's on at the moment)

Thanks in advance - Matt

MattC59

I don't know the shops individually, but I think you'l be lucky to get the wheel fixed on the day you walk in, unless they're especially quiet !!

I'm guessing a repair will cost you £20, but that's just a guess.

The other thing to do is upgrade. The wheels on the Trek 1.7 are Bontragers basic wheels, in fact, I don't think that they list them on their web site as they're a basic OEM wheel. My brother has recently bought a set of Mavic Open Pro rims on Hope Pro 3 hubs (a standard build) and thinks they're great. I seem to remember he paid about £300 for the pair.

Crapaud

£20???

Last time I had a spoke replaced, and the wheel trued, it only cost a fiver!!!

desweller

A £20 repair quoted me by a shop in Acton was the catalyst for building my own wheelstand... £5 is far more reasonable.

BelgianBeerGeek

My LBS charged £10 for new spoke and re-true, but I had to leave it with them overnight. If you explain the urgency they might do it quicker (and probably for £20!)

MattC59

Crapaud wrote:

£20???

Last time I had a spoke replaced, and the wheel trued, it only cost a fiver!!!

To be fair, it was a while back, was on my mtb and a lot of work was required. (I'd done quite a good job of trying to ride through a log instead of over it !)

It cost £15, so I'd factored in a bit of a price increase.

aidso

I've had it done recently at my LBS and it was £12 for the truing and ~£2 for a new spoke and nipple.
You say you broke a spoke but check it hasn't just broken at the nipple - that you could do yourself with a spoke key (There's videos on YouTube of how to tighten it). These are common breakages, happens to all of us therefore I wouldn't use this as a justification for dropping loads of cash on a new Carbon jobbie .

Yossie

£8 when it happened to me a few months ago: £2 spoke, £6 labour, dropped it in at 8 in the morning, picked it up at 2.

But I do know them very well, but that's why you have a LBS.

They also know my weird working life, so (fortunately) they are more than helpful where they can be - and that's part f the reason they are a very, very good LBS.

And yes, I do know that I am very lucky

mattgardiner

Epic failure by Harry Halls cycles... back to Customer Service school please.

After being over the moon at being told that they could sort the wheel out within the day for £10 they've over promised and under delivered by doing no such thing.

What's more, had they bothered to ask some basic questions rather than simply try and get through customers as quickly as possible they would have sold £300 of wheels on top of the repair in 5 minutes.

Oh dear Harry Hall, you'll be seeing no more of my hard earned cash after this. Maybe you could get a referral scheme setup with Evans to benefit in some way every time you show a customer through their door....