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

[Dirt]

I’ll weigh in. Lots of good advice so far.

The bicycle wheel in general is a pretty dang strong thing. More recent incarnations of the bicycle wheel have gone to using very substantial rims (for aerodynamics and rigidity) and relatively fewer spokes. Wheels will often have 24 spokes in the back and 20 up front. The rims are substantial enough that even losing a spoke on these may not be catastrophic. If the wheel isn’t drastically out of true -1 spoke, then there is a pretty good chance that it is okay to ride home on. With low-spoke count wheels like that, you’ll want to get it fixed soon, since the other spokes in the wheel are now carrying more load. If you feel the wheel really start to wobble, then definitely get off it ASAP. If it goes from not rubbing to rubbing quite a bit, then you also should get off and not ride the rim.

Old school wheels and many conventional mountain bike wheels can handle a lot more abuse. They often used 32 or 36 spokes laced with patterns where the spokes cross over each other many times between the hub and the rim. These are the 32 spoke, 3 cross rims that others talked about earlier. The crossing pattern gives a remarkable amount of strength to the wheels. If built correctly, these wheels can get be repaired quite easily even if they get quite out of true after a broken spoke. They also retain an amazing amount of their original strength even if they’re down a spoke.

Ultimately the person doing the wheel repair will be the one to figure out if a wheel can be “brought back” or trued after breaking a spoke. Some damage to a rim (s-bends or large flat spots) can’t be fixed. The structure of the rim is changed so much that no amount of spoke tension can get the rim to roll true and round in the brake pads. Sometimes a wheel can look true, but still be damaged. That’s because the spoke tension has had to be raised so high to straighten the rim, that it throws off the balance of the wheel. That is when you run into problems like someone mentioned, where breaking one spoke can cause others to break too.

From the “don’t try this at home” file….

What you see here is a “custom 29 spoke” wheel (There are actually 32 spokes, but 3 are broken) and a flat tire being ridden by some idiot on the W&OD. The bozo obviously got fed up with fixing flats that were caused by a poorly constructed rim, so he decided to ride home. Numerous people that he passed asked if he had noticed that his rear tire was flat. He made some sarcastic comment with a charming smile to show that he was aware and was just joking around. After riding about 8 miles home on this poor, abused wheel, he found that the fridge was empty and he had nothing for dinner. He then got back on the bike and rode 3 miles to a local restaurant where he got dinner before riding home. The bozo in question at least had the wisdom to make that the last ride ever for that wheel.

Don’t be a bozo.

[DismalScientist]

@Certifried 28244 wrote:

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 😡

Are spokes no longer standardized? Am I sufficiently retro that I have no connection with current reality?
Any bike shops local to your work that can handle this?

BTW, Bontrager is Trek.

[Dirt]

@DismalScientist 28255 wrote:

Are spokes no longer standardized? Am I sufficiently retro that I have no connection with current reality?
Any bike shops local to your work that can handle this?

Some spokes are proprietary. The most common of these are straight-pull spokes. They don’t have a bend at the head of the spoke.

Image from http://bikingtolive.com

Not all shops will have those in stock.

[Tim Kelley]

@Dirt 28253 wrote:

He then got back on the bike and rode 3 miles to a local restaurant where he got dinner before riding home.

“Meat In a Box” if I recall correctly.

[jabberwocky]

AFAICT, Bontrager Race wheels use standard j-bend spokes. http://bontrager.com/model/08253 So as long as the shop has something close to the right length, they should be able to get you fixed.

[Dirt]

@Tim Kelley 28257 wrote:

“Meat In a Box” if I recall correctly.

I heard that dinner was delicious, as usual.

[krazygl00]

@Dirt 28253 wrote:

From the “don’t try this at home” file….

What you see here is a “custom 29 spoke” wheel (There are actually 32 spokes, but 3 are broken) and a flat tire being ridden by some idiot on the W&OD. The bozo obviously got fed up with fixing flats that were caused by a poorly constructed rim, so he decided to ride home. Numerous people that he passed asked if he had noticed that his rear tire was flat. He made some sarcastic comment with a charming smile to show that he was aware and was just joking around. After riding about 8 miles home on this poor, abused wheel, he found that the fridge was empty and he had nothing for dinner. He then got back on the bike and rode 3 miles to a local restaurant where he got dinner before riding home. The bozo in question at least had the wisdom to make that the last ride ever for that wheel.

Don’t be a bozo.

That bozo has a beer-bottle-opener bolted to his bike, if that is at all indicative of anything.

Further, that bozo very likely had other bikes in his stable to ride 3 miles to the restaurant…why wouldn’t he use one of them?

[Dirt]

@krazygl00 28261 wrote:

Further, that bozo very likely had other bikes in his stable to ride 3 miles to the restaurant…why wouldn’t he use one of them?

Some acts of stupidity are so moronic that they need to be extended to be truly relished.

[JorgeGortex]

@Dirt 28256 wrote:

Some spokes are proprietary. The most common of these are straight-pull spokes. They don’t have a bend at the head of the spoke.

Not all shops will have those in stock.

“If you shop has no Mojo Nixon, your shop could use some fixin!” -Dead Milkmen

Random, totally unrelated comment that just had to get out. Carry on.

[Certifried]

@Dirt 28253 wrote:

I’ll weigh in.

haha!

thanks again for the further advice. I didn’t know Bontrager=Trek, but it makes sense now. I’ll just take the bike back to the LBS I purchased it from. Last time I did this, they tried to tell me I should buy a new rim (rear). After mentioning that I had only purchased the bike a month before, suddenly the wheel was able to be trued. If they give me crap this time, I’ll start asking about the warranty from Bontrager. I read online it’s a 5 year warranty, and read some other not so great things about the Race Lite wheelsets.

It’s also a good time to mention my strava club, because I certainly crit my pants this morning.
http://app.strava.com/clubs/i-crit-my-pants

I’m going to risk the 3.5 mile ride to the bowie park-n-ride lot, it’s a flat-ish ride with really wide shoulders for cycling/parking. Pretty low volume of traffic too. Then from New Carrollton I’ll have to Metro bus home or wait until 7pm to ride the trains (stupid metro, anyone have a folding bike for trade? I have a cool clown costume)

[DismalScientist]

I would think this might not be covered by a warranty since it is arguably the result of an accident (pothole) rather than a problem with materials and/or workmanship.

[Mikey]

@Certifried 28267 wrote:

. . .
I’m going to risk the 3.5 mile ride to the bowie park-n-ride lot, it’s a flat-ish ride with really wide shoulders for cycling/parking. Pretty low volume of traffic too. Then from New Carrollton I’ll have to Metro bus home or wait until 7pm to ride the trains (stupid metro, anyone have a folding bike for trade? I have a cool clown costume)

Nah, just get yourself a baby stroller, disconnect both bike wheels and tie them to the frame and place them in the stroller. If anyone gives you crap just say he has his mother’s eyes. No rules about strollers on trains.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@essigmw 28269 wrote:

Nah, just get yourself a baby stroller, disconnect both bike wheels and tie them to the frame and place them in the stroller. If anyone gives you crap just say he has his mother’s eyes. No rules about strollers on trains.

Or get a baby, put him/her in your pannier, and insist that your bike is actually a stroller. Make up a clever/stupid name for the stroller to prove your point (all high-end strollers have such names).

[KelOnWheels]

So here’s a dumb question, how do you tell if a wheel needs truing? If my wheel’s wobbly I just assume I didn’t get it back in the dropouts straight (a theory that frequently proves to be true, possibly unlike the wheel.)

[Mikey]

@ShawnoftheDread 28271 wrote:

Or get a baby, put him/her in your pannier . . .

That’s how I plan to explain the birds and the bees to the kids. . .”Dirt flies around at night and places babies into expecting parent’s panniers.”

[Author]

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