Replacing a spoke in an RS10 - how hard can it be??

keef66

After 40 something years of cycling I had my first ever broken spoke on Monday. Drive side rear snapped at the hub, which rendered the wheel unrideable.

According to Shimano tech docs for my 7 year old RS10 I needed a 302 mm spoke, but all I could find online were 304 mm spokes for the newer RS10-A. Two of these duly ordered and arrived, and I was sure I could sort out a bodge to make one fit.

Last night I got around to trying to fit one. First struggle was getting the plastic Shimano rim tape off; very tight / snug fit, and seems to have lost it's flexibility over the years.

Once removed, the stricken spoke was fished out, clamped in the vice and the nipple removed quite easily.

Plenty of clearance inside the rim to fit a washer or 2 under the nipple head to deal with the 2mm discrepancy, so I was feeling optimistic.

First problem was that the washers, which although a good fit around the nipple, were too wide to fit through the hole into the rim. I tediously filed them down to the requisite size.

The next issue was getting the nipple, complete with washers, inside the rim and poking out the other side to accept the spoke. I suspect that not having the wheel held in a truing stand or similar was only making things more difficult, but lacking the requisite three hands I mucked up this seemingly simple task and now I have a nipple and 2 washers all rattling around inside the rim separately. At this point the footy was kicking off so I left it to be continued tonight.

So how do you accomplished wheel builders go about getting a nipple through a box section rim and screwing it on to a spoke? Presumably have the wheel in a building / truing stand? Stick the nipple on the end of a screwdriver and insert it upwards through the rim, find the spoke end and screw it on till it bites?

I think I'll have to stick the wheel back on the bike and have that in the workstand so I'm not having to juggle the wheel as well as the components. Then at least I can use the brake blocks as a guide to get it true again.

arlowood

Just a thought - but can't you use the other spoke you ordered to screw into the back end of the nipple + washers combo and use that to feed the nipple through the rim to accept the new spoke.

Apologies if I have misconstrued the problem.

Also the lack of a truing stand could be overcome by mounting your wheel back into the dropouts with the bike held in a workstand or just propped upside down on the floor.

keef66

I think I prefer the screwdriver approach, possibly with a bit of blutack to keep the nipple on the end, so I can then twist it to start threading onto the spoke.

Using the other spoke, although attractive from the point of view of not dropping the nipple / washers inside the rim again, requires 3 hands: one to hold the new spoke, one to hold the nipple from underneath via the spare spoke, and one to tighten the nipple with the spoke key.

And yes, I am going to have to use the bike as a truing stand.

Monty Dog

You can probably get away without washers and live with a little bit of spoke protruding out from the nipple as long as it is well below the rim bed as the load is only taken by about a third of the thread (6 turns) - or simply cut/file down the spoke.

keef66

So I can keep tightening the nipple beyond the threaded portion without it binding? I think there is quite a bit of clearance between the nipples and the rim bed where the rim tape sits, so a bit of protruding spoke might be the simplest option.

ugo.santalucia

Why don't you ask the cycleclinic if he can find you the correct spoke and fit it for you? As I understand, you live about 10 miles away

keef66

I'm a bit of a stubborn git and like to fix things myself, but if this proves beyond me, The Cycleclinic is my plan B! And if this becomes a recurring problem now the spokes have reached a certain age, I'll be discussing a pair of handbuilts with him.

As a youth I cycled thousands of miles on (presumably) 36 spoke wheels and never ever broke a spoke*. Occasionally a wheel would require a bit of a tweak to keep it true, but that was it. It was a bit of a shock to be completely immobilised the other day just by losing a spoke. It was lucky that I was close to home, had a mobile phone signal, and could call my wife to rescue me. Often I'm miles away and so is she.

* not even when a wheel was completely pringled when the bike had some straw bales fall on it!

ugo.santalucia

keef66 wrote:

As a youth I cycled thousands of miles on (presumably) 36 spoke wheels and never ever broke a spoke*. Occasionally a wheel would require a bit of a tweak to keep it true, but that was it. It was a bit of a shock to be completely immobilised the other day just by losing a spoke. It was lucky that I was close to home, had a mobile phone signal, and could call my wife to rescue me. Often I'm miles away and so is she.

* not even when a wheel was completely pringled when the bike had some straw bales fall on it!

There is a endless number of threads on the subject. The moral is that modern equipment is not designed to cope with minor cock-ups. A valve extension leaking is a major issue too

keef66

Just in case anyone is interested I fitted the replacement 304mm spoke last night and successfully trued the wheel. Not sure why I was finding it so difficult before... I took Monty's advice and ditched the idea of using washers, simply tightening the nipple slightly beyond the threads on the spoke. The end of the spoke was barely proud of the nipple inside the rim and there's plenty of clearance between it and the rim tape.

So you can use the (more freely available, eg SJS) 304mm spokes on a rear RS10 which according to Shimano require 302mm ones (which I could only find in Germany)