Dodgy wheels?

somekindofwizard

I just had quite a nasty stack when a spoke bust on my front wheel and fell across the other side, effectively the same as someone shoving a stick through the wheel at around 20mph. Consequently I got thrown over the handlebars and fairly nasty injuries.

I have never heard of anyone friends suffering the same failure and just wondering if anyone on here has had this?

The wheels were Planet X (model B's I think) and I have sort of lost confidence in them now, should I try to replace them or just get them fixed and hope it was a one off and is unlikely to happen again?

pastey_boy

I'm pretty sure that if someone put a spoke through my wheel at 20mph that the spoke would just bend.

somekindofwizard

You would be wrong!

I would have imagined the same but I just found the spoke lodged at 90 degrees between the fork and another spoke right at the base of the wheel near the hub. There was nothing on the road surface, no tram tracks or gutters to run into, all of a sudden the wheel locked up, skidded for a couple of seconds on the wet road and then pitched me over the bars.

supersonic

Have a wheel builder look at them. The spokes may be fatigued and need replacing, might have been a one off.

ugo.santalucia

If you are based in London I can have a look at your wheels and give you a quote for a rebuild (yes, when one spoke pops, typically others will follow). Given the low/mid quality of planet X components, it might or might not be worth to rebuild