Many broken spokes :-(

rich164h

Hi,
I've just got my touring bike out of the garage after a couple of years of not being used and I've discovered that there are 5-6 broken spokes on each wheel. I have no idea how this has happened but I suspect that at some point something was dropped on the wheels or they got accidently kicked. The wheels were handbuilt by SPA Cycles and as far as I remember are 105 hubs and Rigida Chrina rims. No idea what sort of spokes were used.

As I don't have a truing stand etc is it realistic for me to replace this many spokes myself? I have replaced single spokes in the past on other bikes but this many makes me think that the whole wheel should probably be rebuilt etc. Thoughts?

Can anyone give a rough guess at how much getting this done might cost?

Thanks,

Rich

dgunthor

they'll be standard cheap spokes i'd expect at 20p to 50p each to replace (not your £10 carbon mavic spokes, ouch!)

i'd take one out, measure it, get some replacements fitted yourself then take to your LBS to true for £10 to £15 per wheel

ugo.santalucia

32 holes Chrina built 3 cross you need 296 mm spokes for the rear drive side and 298 everywhere else. Shorter spokes for 36 H 3 cross. Go for it. SPA cycles use Alpina (ACI) double butted spokes 10-20 p each... if you phone them and tell them what happened, they might send them to you for free, I would...

Done professionally, I'd expect to be around 20 pounds... done by your mate who builds wheels, should be worth a couple of pints

term1te

Very odd, where have the spokes broken, by the bend or near the rim? I'd have thought that the wheel would have buckled first before the spokes snapped if it was kicked or had something dropped on it. Unless the spokes were particularly poor quality and corroded?

For a single spoke you can true the wheel whilst it’s in the frame or forks, but to replace that many you'd need to loosen them all and start again, and it would be easier with a proper jig. If it is the quality of the spokes, and there is still life in the hub and rim, I'd replace the lot.

If it was physical damage, then the rims might be damaged too, look for any tiny cracks around the spoke holes.

fenix

I'd be checking all components very carefully after that much damage. Thats a lot of force to break all those spokes,

rich164h

Thanks all.

The spokes are broken about half way along with most (if I remember correctly) being next to each other,, almost like a cut across the wheel, hence why I think that they have suffered some sort of impact.There doesn't appears to be any damage elsewhere (although I'll double check) so I'm pretty sure that's it's a case of replacing then re tensioning probably the whole wheel, but having never done that before I had no idea how easy or realistic it would be for me to do that myself. If it's only going cost about £20 I guess that's worth paying for.

The garage was absolutely full of boxes etc so at some point I'm guessing that something has just fallen on them.