Help! What do I do?! WWYD? (spoke broke)

[bikesnick]

it happened to me. i opened the brakes and rode home – carefully, about 10 miles. the lbs replaced the spoke and trued the wheel. no damage.

[rcannon100]

Dont have an answer. Interestingly, someone on Potomac Pedalers had a similar incident. I dont have an answer for you – but apparently the answer has something to do with how many spokes you have. The more spoke you have, the more it is okay to limp along. Fewer spokes and no. But you still need to true the tire so that it is safe to ride.

Can you put your bike on a bus bike-rack; do you have a usable bus route anywhere near?

That said, it is a good time to remind people of the Greater Washington Council of Government program: Guaranteed Ride Home.

Guaranteed Ride Home (otherwise known as GRH) provides commuters who regularly (twice a week) carpool, vanpool, bike, walk or take transit to work with a FREE and reliable ride home when one of life’s unexpected emergencies arise.

Commuters may take advantage of GRH up to four times per year to get home for unexpected emergencies such as a personal illness or a sick child. GRH can also be used for unscheduled overtime when your employer mandates that you must stay late.

GRH is designed to rescue commuters who are worried about how they’ll get home when an emergency arises. Knowing there’s a guaranteed ride home allows one to use commuting options like transit and carpools with peace of mind and confidence.

Best of all, the GRH service is FREE!

My route follows public transportation so my “guaranteed ride home” is hopping in the tube.

[JustinW]

I’ve enjoyed a couple broken spokes before and managed to make it home each time, once @ 20 miles out on the W&OD. Dunno if that was smart on my part, but the spoke was on my front wheel, and the resulting wobble was not too bad overall so I felt ok about limping home.

My guess is that a broken spoke on a rear wheel (bearing more weight) might be dicier.

[krazygl00]

@Certifried 28220 wrote:

Snapped a spoke this morning after hitting a very large and very hidden (full of water lol) pot-hole. Hurt my arms from hitting it so hard! It was at the bottom of this dip in the road, and as soon as I stood up to “power” (I use that term loosely when describing my cycling) up the hill… TWANG! (front spoke)

Luckily, I was within a few miles of the New Carrollton metro where I catch my bus to Bowie, so limped there OK. The 3.5 mile ride from Bowie Park-n-Ride lot to my work was OK, but the wheel is definitely out of true. Not bad enough to rub the brakes much, but it’s wobbly, and that scares me going down hills or approaching any speeds over about 15mph.

I’m sort of stranded out here where I work, I’ll have to at least ride the 3.5 miles back to the Bowie P-n-R lot. From there I catch my bus to New Carrollton metro. My options are wide open from there, Metro home, mix of metro/cycling, etc. Proteus bikes is an 8 mile ride from New Carrollton. Which is what I’m thinking, but I’m just not sure how many miles I’ll get out of the rim like this. Will it waffle on me? Can I do more damage? Will I die?

I’ve ridden ~20 miles before on wheels with broken spokes; I think you’ll be ok to do the 3.5 to PnR lot + 8 miles to Proteus.

The long-term outlook for the wheel is doubtful. I once went over a curb at the bottom of a hill (unexpected turn…fun!) and really hit the front wheel particularly hard. Although the wheel didn’t show any signs of damage at the time, I would replace 6 spokes over the next 3 months (and not the same spoke repeatedly, but at all different points around the wheel) before calling it quits on that wheel and getting a new one. Catastrophic wheel damage is pretty bad; if I were you, when you get the spoke replaced, buy 2-3 extras to keep with you so you don’t get stranded. You’re lucky in that it is the front wheel so spokes are the same length on either side. If you find yourself replacing spokes over and over, you’ll know it is time for a new wheel

[paulg]

It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve broken many spokes on rides and carried on.

You might want to just check out the rim and other spokes just to see if there is a more serious issue, such as cracks, if not you’ll be OK to get home. Did the tire flat? I’m surprised that a spoke broke but you didn’t pinch flat as well.

Do you have a multi tool? If so they quite often have a spoke wrench that you can use to true up the wheel just enough to stop it rubbing on the brakes. Doing that will make it easier to get home or to the bike shop. A good start is to loosen the spokes on either side of the broken one, do a half turn each time and check if it’s making a difference.

You should also remove the broken spoke or bend it around the other spokes so it doesn’t flop around and impale you or get caught in the fork.

Good luck.

[Mikey]

one broken spoke should not completely strand you. If you can get yourself to a nearby bike shop they should be able to repair it in about 10 minutes. Riding on a broken spoke is not great, but it usually only results in a second broken spoke (opposite the original broken one). Keep your speed down and you should be fine. If you have a spoke wrench with you, you can usually adjust the surrounding spokes to take up some of the slack so that you can turn a left/right wobble into a less noticable up/down wobble. Once you get home or safe to a bike shop, and get it fixed you may want to invest in a few tools (spoke wrench if you don’t have one, a cassette tool and 1 inch box wrench, and chain whip, this will allow you to change any broken spokes by yourself (tools pay for themselves by the 3rd or 4th spoke).

Spokes tend to break at the head (mushroom end), rarely at the threads, and even rarer still mid gauge (all though I’ve had all three happen). If the spoke breaks at the head, remove the wheel (usually the back wheel, which carries most of your weight), unscrew what’s left of the spoke fish in a new one, being careful to match the under/under/over, or over/over/under pattern, and tighten it up with the wrench (spoke will seem reversed threaded but really it’s just upside down).

If the spoke is on the cassette side, you need to have tools to remove it prior to fishing through the spoke, since the gears are in the way. Talk to your LBS mechanic for what tools to get for your hub.

Lastly, if you start noticing your wheel breaking a lot of spokes it may be time to get a new wheel. Keep the old one for spare spokes and carry a few with you in your bag/flat kit, or afix them to your frame.

Hope this helps.

[GuyContinental]

@paulg 28228 wrote:

It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve broken many spokes on rides and carried on.

You might want to just check out the rim and other spokes just to see if there is a more serious issue, such as cracks, if not you’ll be OK to get home. Did the tire flat? I’m surprised that a spoke broke but you didn’t pinch flat as well.

Do you have a multi tool? If so they quite often have a spoke wrench that you can use to true up the wheel just enough to stop it rubbing on the brakes. Doing that will make it easier to get home or to the bike shop. A good start is to loosen the spokes on either side of the broken one, do a half turn each time and check if it’s making a difference.

You should also remove the broken spoke or bend it around the other spokes so it doesn’t flop around and impale you or get caught in the fork.

Good luck.

What he said- I broke a spoke yesterday off-road on my cross bike fully 20 miles from home. I tied it up, trued up the wheel just enough to clear the brakes (careful with this, better to go brakeless if you don’t know how to true a wheel- you could really muff it up) and replaced the spoke and nut when I got home. One spoke, not a huge deal, two in a row… not great… three and it’s walking time. Wheel is probably fine too.

Truing a wheel is kind of an art and it *really* helps to have a truing stand but if you at least understand the theory you can get your way out of a bind.

[bobco85]

In my experience, once you break a spoke on a wheel, it’s only a matter of time before a second spoke breaks. Check the other spokes (I run my fingers around each side of the wheel, “plucking” the spokes like playing a circular harp) to make sure that none of them feel too loose (at least one will feel a little loose on the end opposite to the broken spoke).

I think you should be fine with the 3.5 mile ride. If you decide to try the 8 mile ride to Proteus, make sure they have the spoke you need so it can be replaced and the wheel trued (I imagine this will be no problem, as I’ve heard good things about Proteus). Keeping your speed low and avoiding any sort of bumps, debris, or collards, you should arrive unscathed.

[Certifried]

thanks all! Some great suggestions, now I can stress a little less.

They’re Bontrager Race wheels with 24 spokes. The wheel isn’t really rubbing at all on the brakes, just a tiny bit maybe. I do have a park tool with a spoke wrench, but think I’ll leave it alone for now as I’ve never trued a wheel. If it starts rubbing real bad or getting worse, I’ll attempt to true it up. If that fails, I’ll just walk it, call a taxi, or make my son come out and get me (he’d have to miss work, so that’s a last option).

I’m going to see how the time works out before I decide what to do. If I get out of work early, I can make it to Proteus with enough time for them to fix it. If I’m running late, I’ll just ride the Metro home, which would probably end up taking about as much time as the ride home anyways. The real concern was just whether the wheel could possibly collapse on me or not. Oddly enough, for all the years I rode back in the early 2000s and the few hundred miles since I started cycling recently, I’ve only had 1 other spoke break. It was the rear wheel on this bike about 200 yards from home. I’m not really liking how fragile these Bontragers seem to be (yeah, yeah, it can’t be my 210 pound ass, it’s gotta be the wheels!)

[jabberwocky]

I’ve broken several spokes over the years. In my experience, how much of a problem it is depends wholly on the type/composition of the wheel build. When I broke a spoke on the front wheel on my old Lemond Fillmore (light 16 spoke radial machine built wheel) the wheel was pretty much instantly unusable. But breaking a spoke on my trail bike (32 spoke 3 cross on DH worthy rims) had no effect on the wheel, and in fact I rode it that way for a few months before bothering to replace the spoke.

[Certifried]

Meh, just verified with Proteus that they don’t carry Trek (knew that) or bontrager stuff, so no spokes I’ll have to take it back to the LBS I got it from, which means I’m taking Metro home today 😡

[jnva]

Here’s what happened when i rode around for several weeks with broken spokes.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1536[/ATTACH]

[mstone]

If you’re not the size of a pro racer, you should get real wheels, not those cute little decorative ones. 😎

[krazygl00]

@Certifried 28240 wrote:

thanks all! Some great suggestions, now I can stress a little less.

They’re Bontrager Race wheels with 24 spokes. The wheel isn’t really rubbing at all on the brakes, just a tiny bit maybe. I do have a park tool with a spoke wrench, but think I’ll leave it alone for now as I’ve never trued a wheel. If it starts rubbing real bad or getting worse, I’ll attempt to true it up. If that fails, I’ll just walk it, call a taxi, or make my son come out and get me (he’d have to miss work, so that’s a last option).

I’m going to see how the time works out before I decide what to do. If I get out of work early, I can make it to Proteus with enough time for them to fix it. If I’m running late, I’ll just ride the Metro home, which would probably end up taking about as much time as the ride home anyways. The real concern was just whether the wheel could possibly collapse on me or not. Oddly enough, for all the years I rode back in the early 2000s and the few hundred miles since I started cycling recently, I’ve only had 1 other spoke break. It was the rear wheel on this bike about 200 yards from home. I’m not really liking how fragile these Bontragers seem to be (yeah, yeah, it can’t be my 210 pound ass, it’s gotta be the wheels!)

Since they are nicer wheels, when Proteus replaces the spoke and trues the wheel, you may want to insist they use a tensiometer to check tension on all of the spokes.

I am a big fan of using a tensiometer; it is really not that hard to do, and ever since I started building wheels I’ve come to understand how important using one is to building and maintaining true and strong wheels. I know that many will say you can get pretty close using “feel”, and while you can certainly locate very looseor very tight spokes with your fingers, human sensory accuracy is too limited to get the spoke tensions even enough (See the “Just Noticeable Difference”). To produce a truly strong wheel that will stay that way for a long time, the spoke tensions need to be within a few (30 or so max) kilograms force (Kfg) of each other, and this is simply not achievable without a tensiometer.

The downside is that Proteus may charge you more for truing with a tensiometer; you may not be interested in paying that (especially since this wheel may be on the way out) so check with them first. If you bought the bike/wheels from them they ought to give you a break.

[krazygl00]

@mstone 28250 wrote:

If you’re not the size of a pro racer, you should get real wheels, not those cute little decorative ones. 😎

I concur. At my weight (*cough-mumble-let’s just say over 225-cough-mumble*), I actually ride a 36h rear wheel! I’d rather have a wheel that lasts a long time than save a few grams. Actually, more people should ride 36h rear wheels

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