Wheel Failure

meanredspider

My son's Isla Bienn 26" has had a failure I've not seen before. I've not have the chance to look properly yet but all the rear spokes are loose and so the rim is wobbling about like a drunken tart on a Friday night. I can't immediately see anything causing this - all the spokes are there. Anybody suggest what it might be - a whole load of nipple failures that I just can't see with the tyre on?

cyclingprop

ignore me im an idiot

meanredspider

Well I've pulled it to bits. There's a broken spoke which I can only imagine MRS Jnr has been riding on a while (to be fair it was wedged and hard to spot). I imagine then that, with tension slightly released, some of the other nipples have unwound themselves - there was a lot of thread showing on some. Sound plausible? I've only ever busted one spoke before.

itboffin

He didn't let JZed borrow it did he?

bunter

Riding for any length of time with a bust spoke will do that, IME. I also found that the added stress on the remaining spokes makes more failures likely after the spoke has been replaced (but then I am tall/heavy and overweight and seem to destroy rear wheels despite riding very carefully).

Long_Time_Lurker

What bunter said. My bike copes short-term with one loose spoke but it messes the wheel up in the long-run. The only time I didn't notice, I ended up losing 5 spokes as I bunny-hopped off a curb.
When a spoke goes, I now nurse my bike home and fix it straight away.

meanredspider

bunter wrote:

Riding for any length of time with a bust spoke will do that, IME. I also found that the added stress on the remaining spokes makes more failures likely after the spoke has been replaced (but then I am tall/heavy and overweight and seem to destroy rear wheel despite riding very carefully).

Yup - that seems to be what it was. Fortunately for MRS Jnr, IslaBikes wheels are built like brick outhouses and it has been mended by the good people at Alpine. Hopefully he'll learn as he and his elder brother often head out their bikes - only trouble is Big Bro has a Scott CR1 SL - so I could do with getting Jnr a road bike too - but it would be good if he can spot when it's bust.

cyclingprop

meanredspider wrote:

Hopefully he'll learn

FYI he won't

veronese68

cyclingprop wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Hopefully he'll learn

FYI he won't

At least not until he starts paying for the repairs or having to fix them himself. Haven't quite reached that stage with my son, but getting there.

meanredspider

They're actually pretty good. His elder brother is super protective of his Scott (as you'd hope he would be). The Isla is getting pretty long in the tooth and has served him very well

sketchley

bunter wrote:

..... I am tall/heavy and overweight and seem to destroy rear wheels despite riding very carefully.

So am I, but I don't destroy wheels anymore. I used to buy factory wheels and kept pulling spoke through the rims, since then I now buy hand built wheels, the commuter bike has 32 hole Rigida DP18 rims on Ultegra Hubs, the best bike has 36 hole Velocity Deep V on Ultegra Hubs. I also run 28c tyre on both which help with the load. The wheels totally changed the character of the bike when I first used them, less wheel flex = more power and the quality of the Ultegra hubs is really good so rolling along just feel so much better than cheap hub on cheap factory wheels. The only issue I've had is having to replace the rim and spokes on the rear of the commuter bike due to wear after approx. 4000-5000 miles, much of which I was down to heavy braking needed to stop 18stone. However a complete rebuild (new rim and spokes) by Ugo from this board was less than cost of factory built rear wheel, if you are in London then I'd highly recommend using Ugo.

cyclingprop

Sketchley wrote:

bunter wrote:

..... I am tall/heavy and overweight and seem to destroy rear wheels despite riding very carefully.

So am I, but I don't destroy wheels anymore. I used to buy factory wheels and kept pulling spoke through the rims, since then I now buy hand built wheels, the commuter bike has 32 hole Rigida DP18 rims on Ultegra Hubs, the best bike has 36 hole Velocity Deep V on Ultegra Hubs. I also run 28c tyre on both which help with the load. The wheels totally changed the character of the bike when I first used them, less wheel flex = more power and the quality of the Ultegra hubs is really good so rolling along just feel so much better than cheap hub on cheap factory wheels. The only issue I've had is having to replace the rim and spokes on the rear of the commuter bike due to wear after approx. 4000-5000 miles, much of which I was down to heavy braking needed to stop 18stone. However a complete rebuild (new rim and spokes) by Ugo from this board was less than cost of factory built rear wheel, if you are in London then I'd highly recommend using Ugo.

+1. Running 32/32 on hopes and theyre great.

bunter

I am on Kinesis MaxLight 29er 32 spoke disc wheels at the moment, which ought, in theory, to be pretty bombproof. They seem good so far, and aren't too heavy. On previous wheelsets I have popped loads of spokes, ripped spokes through a Mavic hub after less than 20 miles (I am not impressed with Mavic's straight-pull design), and sheared through two different rear hubs near the cassette (the first time I thought I had a knackered freehub as I could spin the pedals without turning the wheel) - do I win?
6'3" and about 98 kg.

cyclingprop

bunter wrote:

I am on Kinesis MaxLight 29er 32 spoke disc wheels at the moment, which ought, in theory, to be pretty bombproof. They seem good so far, and aren't too heavy. On previous wheelsets I have popped loads of spokes, ripped spokes through a Mavic hub after less than 20 miles (I am not impressed with Mavic's straight-pull design), and sheared through two different rear hubs near the cassette (the first time I thought I had a knackered freehub as I could spin the pedals without turning the wheel) - do I win?
6'3" and about 98 kg.

6'4" and did JOGLE on the hope/Hplussons last year. Oh, 120kg.