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

[Certifried]

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?

Topic

[Dirt]

@essigmw 28273 wrote:

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.”

And y’all wonder how I get this Montana-sized bags under my eyes?

[Mikey]

@KelOnWheels 28272 wrote:

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.)

When it is shushin you, you know, shh . . . shh . . . shh . . . (i.e. rubbing on the rim breaks), also if you feel a little (more) unstable when turning, or when you look down at it while riding. Rim breaks make a great free truing stand, turn the bike upside down and spin the wheel while looking at the break clearance. Adjust to ballance, if you are brave. Remember righty-tighty, lefty-loosy only works if you have the tire off and you are turning the nipple (a fun sentance no?), otherwise you turning the bottom part of the nipple (upside down) so righty-loosy, lefty-tighty, sort of?.

[KelOnWheels]

@ShawnoftheDread 28271 wrote:

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).

ELITE babies ride crabon strollers. With disc wheels.

OTOH, “Surly Ogre” seems like a fine name for a baby stroller.

[mstone]

@DismalScientist 28255 wrote:

Are spokes no longer standardized? Am I sufficiently retro that I have no connection with current reality?

You can get straight, butted, flat, different gauges, etc. Not even getting into proprietary fittings.

[Certifried]

Oh. My. God. This bus is actually about half the speed that I bike!

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[krazygl00]

@KelOnWheels 28272 wrote:

So here’s a dumb question, how do you tell if a wheel needs truing?

Answer: because you’ve been riding on it. Seriously, with enough miles, all wheels get out of true, and they all need to be periodically trued up. It is a maintenance thing like changing oil in a car. This is especially true with new wheels.

People who own truing stands have been known to be susceptible to being plied with a 6-pack of fine beer in exchange for wheel truing. That’s just what I’ve heard.

[rcannon100]

@KelOnWheels 28272 wrote:

So here’s a dumb question, how do you tell if a wheel needs truing?

krazygl00 is right. And I can show you thursday night. If you feel comfortable turning your bike upsidedown, or whatever, get the tire to spin. Now stare at the gap between your brake pads and your tire. Is it consistent or does it wobble. Now do it again, looking at the top of the tire – and some mark – might be your fork or some spot on the tire. You can also just put your finger across the top of the tire. Does the height of the tire change? Does the tire seem to have an egg bump to it.

If yes, get it trued. Its very important. A trued tire will brake better. And you will have better control of your bike.

That said, I HATE truing tires. Done wrong, and you can just make it worse and worse and worse – and poof – you now have a scrap heap of rubber and steal. It is an Art.

[video=youtube_share;rf9q_jqcG9w]http://youtu.be/rf9q_jqcG9w[/video]

[Mikey]

@rcannon100 28287 wrote:

krazygl00 is right. And I can show you thursday night. If you feel comfortable turning your bike upsidedown, or whatever, get the tire to spin. Now stare at the gap between your brake pads and your tire. Is it consistent or does it wobble. Now do it again, looking at the top of the tire – and some mark – might be your fork or some spot on the tire. You can also just put your finger across the top of the tire. Does the height of the tire change? Does the tire seem to have an egg bump to it.

If yes, get it trued. Its very important. A trued tire will brake better. And you will have better control of your bike.

That said, I HATE truing tires. Done wrong, and you can just make it worse and worse and worse – and poof – you now have a scrap heap of rubber and steal. It is an Art.

[video=youtube_share;rf9q_jqcG9w]http://youtu.be/rf9q_jqcG9w[/video]

I love truing wheels, I hate truing my only wheel. If you have to get going, you will feel rushed, and you will f-uck it up, guarenteed. If you have a few hours, you can gnat’sass it and all is right in the world.

[Arlingtonrider]

I’ve heard that there is a wheel and truing “artist” who does work for Spokes in Alexandria and teaches classes in it as well.

[KelOnWheels]

@krazygl00 28286 wrote:

People who own truing stands have been known to be susceptible to being plied with a 6-pack of fine beer in exchange for wheel truing. That’s just what I’ve heard.

That sounds like something that would fit my budget

[krazygl00]

@KelOnWheels 28300 wrote:

That sounds like something that would fit my budget

The trick is to make sure said wheelsmith does the truing before you give him the beer.

[Brendan von Buckingham]

All good info so far. You should be able to limp home on one broken spoke following all the tips. But I didn’t see anyone comment about weight, so I’ll add this.

Local wheel builder, http://www.billmouldwheels.com/school.html, has concluded that 180 pounds is the threshold when weight of the rider + portage becomes an issue for spoke tension and wheel design. Whether that’s the right number or not, who knows, but your weight is something to consider.

I recently broke a spoke right on my rear wheel right in the middle. I pulled over, removed the outside remnant, secured the inside remnant, and used a spoke wrench to redistribute some of the spoke tensions to compensate for the lost spoke. That got me home. When I got the wheel in my stand to replace the spoke, six other spokes heads at the hub were either bent or gouged. I must have kicked something up into my wheel and somehow levered it into my hub. Could have been real bad.

[Dickie]

@Certifried 28284 wrote:

Oh. My. God. This bus is actually about half the speed that I bike!

Spoke like a true cyclist… HA HA!

[GuyContinental]

@krazygl00 28251 wrote:

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 idea of being able to accurately tweak and build my own wheels is pretty appealing- what set up do folks use?

Amazon bundles the nice Park stand + tensiometer + alignment gauge for around $325… that’s a lot of $20 truing services but if I look at it as a hobby and squint maybe I can justify it… perhaps just the tensiometer as a pretty tool that would allow me to be proactive about wheel issues… I could amortize that over the 24 wheels* that I have in my basement- that’s only $2.65 a wheel!
LINK

*5 of my bikes; 3 of my wife’s; 2 single wheel trailers; 2 unicycles and 2 spare 26″ wheels… I may have a bike problem

[eminva]

@GuyContinental 28316 wrote:

I could amortize that over the 24 wheels* [/SIZE]

More than that! Don’t you think those kids will be riding one of these days?

Liz

[Author]

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