2 spokes down, okay to ride?

jpower

I have ordered some new spokes, meantime though I was wondering is it still okay to ride the bike?

Wheels are Planet X CT45's, 2 spokes that are gone are on the rear non-drive side.

craker

How far are you going?

Looking at the spoke count I'm surprised it still spins.

Personally, no.

jpower

If it makes any diff I weigh 68kg

I used it today for 28k, realized at the start of the ride there was a problem as wheel was getting stuck on brake, quick stop at the bike shop told me if was a broken spoke.

Would be looking to do about 50k on the weekend.

simon_masterson

If you can ride it, I can't see why you would do any harm (riding with lots of spokes down can do some damage over time), but I wouldn't ride it in anger. I can't say I'd want to, either - do you not have a spare bike?

Monty Dog

Not really - you'll be putting lots of stress on the remaining spokes, and once two have gone, you'll usually find the others following suit and pulling the wheel completely out. Worst case totally trashing the wheel and a taxi-ride home.

slowbike

TBH, I'm amazed that you need to visit a bike shop to tell you the spoke is broken - however, I don't know the particular circumstances and perhaps it wasn't obvious - but once discovered that there are spokes broken you should minimise the impact on the wheel.

Spokes break for a reason - a broken spoke will increase the pressure on the other spokes and they stand a higher chance of breaking.

If you want to do any miles this weekend then use a different wheel.

jpower

Cool, many thanks, I do have a mountain bike, not ideal for the roads but always good training so will use that instead till the spokes arrive.

It's weird I have no idea how it happened, last ride was fine, only this morning before going out, ,filled up the tyres then when spinning the wheel it started to hit the brakes, so tried to adjust it but it never helped, so i went out thinking it was a break adjustment issue and i would stop off at the bike shop and let them sort that for me.

barrowmatt

I wouldn't risk it if it's a tri-spoke wheel

jpower

Mountain Bike it is.

ugo.santalucia

2 spokes on the same side at the same time means you need a rebuild... you can replace the spokes, but other will pop pretty soon, giving you more grief.

Unfortunately these big retailers builds have patchy quality and occasionally bad and you might have got a bad one.

A rant on the topic on my last article

http://whosatthewheel.com/2015/01/08/wh ... of-a-rant/

jpower

ugo.santalucia wrote:

2 spokes on the same side at the same time means you need a rebuild... you can replace the spokes, but other will pop pretty soon, giving you more grief.

Unfortunately these big retailers builds have patchy quality and occasionally bad and you might have got a bad one.

A rant on the topic on my last article

http://whosatthewheel.com/2015/01/08/wh ... of-a-rant/

So I don't think both happened at the same time, I think one was first and on the ride back I remember hearing a spoke noise, that when I think the second one happened.

I hope its nothing more then that

bikes`n`guns

I wouldn`t
I bust a spoke last week and even with the caliper fully wound open the wheel would not spin, so I can imagine the tension involved.

Last thing Id want is a wheel beggaring up flying doonhill.

jpower

Bikes`n`guns wrote:

I wouldn`t
I bust a spoke last week and even with the caliper fully wound open the wheel would not spin, so I can imagine the tension involved.

Last thing Id want is a wheel beggaring up flying doonhill.

me too, especially as I only bought these wheels a few months back.

ugo.santalucia

jpower wrote:

I hope its nothing more then that

spokes on the NDS fatigue fast when the tension is low... chances are they will all pop, one after the other. TBH a temporary repair is a waste of money. They are probably good rims, find someone to build you a decent wheel out of it

cyclingfury

jpower wrote:

I have ordered some new spokes, meantime though I was wondering is it still okay to ride the bike?

Wheels are Planet X CT45's, 2 spokes that are gone are on the rear non-drive side.

Err, no.

Anonymous

Not sure what surprises me more. That you had to ask if a wheel with broken spokes is ok to ride on or that you ride on carbon rims that cost about 500 quid with no other back up wheelset for riding on.

Old_Timer

1. No, please don't ride on the wheel, the spokes are in tension as a system, when they are out of tension/broke the others are stressed beyond their design.

2. When you get time find a copy of Jobst Brandt's book on wheel building and read up on the science behind wheel building and how to build a wheel. It is worth the time to read, and very helpful if you want to do any wheel work, in the future.

Best of luck with your riding, use the mtb this weekend.

jpower

Maglia Rosa wrote:

Not sure what surprises me more. That you had to ask if a wheel with broken spokes is ok to ride on or that you ride on carbon rims that cost about 500 quid with no other back up wheelset for riding on.

I have the original stock rims, they were suppose to be repurposed for my wives bike but that hasn't happened as yet, might be wise for me to keep them as backups.

jpower

Spokes arrived dropped bike off to get them sorted plus service, the tech guy told me I should really speak to Planet X as they don't really expect that to happen to 3 month old wheels, especially if you have no idea how it happened, so left them an email.

So he did mention that when the replace they would have to rebuild, tension and true the wheel. Will see what Planet X say.

ugo.santalucia

jpower wrote:

Spokes arrived dropped bike off to get them sorted plus service, the tech guy told me I should really speak to Planet X as they don't really expect that to happen to 3 month old wheels, especially if you have no idea how it happened, so left them an email.

So he did mention that when the replace they would have to rebuild, tension and true the wheel. Will see what Planet X say.

Yep

jpower

So I've haven't used my mountain bike on the roads for a long time, I forgot how much harder it is, but great training, think I should take take it out once a week. 13 minutes down on road bike time, but legs were def being worked harder.