Spoke gone again...why?

[carreauchompeur]

Grr.

Another annoying day, went out for a few errand on the bike and heard 'ping!'

Spoke gone on the rear wheel of my road bike. Now, after about 3 years of ownership I had a spoke go on the rear wheel about 3 weeks ago, first time ever. Bike shop sorted it out and commented that the rear wheel had needed a lot of sorting out to get it back in correct shape and tension.

Surely another spoke shouldn't have gone in such a short time? I haven't done mega miles or anything silly. It wasn't a new spoke.

Did the bike shop cock up the first job? Popping back in there on Tues and want to be fore-armed.

[Celtic Dragon]

I'll go with metal fatigue. After time metal becomes stressed and fails. Don't forget spokes are under a fair amount of tension and get knocked about a fair bit because of the road surface and pot holes.

[Fastpedeller]

carreauchompeur said:

Grr.

Another annoying day, went out for a few errand on the bike and heard 'ping!'

Spoke gone on the rear wheel of my road bike. Now, after about 3 years of ownership I had a spoke go on the rear wheel about 3 weeks ago, first time ever. Bike shop sorted it out and commented that the rear wheel had needed a lot of sorting out to get it back in correct shape and tension.

Surely another spoke shouldn't have gone in such a short time? I haven't done mega miles or anything silly. It wasn't a new spoke.

Did the bike shop cock up the first job? Popping back in there on Tues and want to be fore-armed.

The issue with 'truing' wheels is whether it's possible. If the wheel has hit a pothole or otherwise become bent, no amount of truing will correct it if the metal is stretched. It's difficult when a customer doesn't appreciate this, and I can empathise with a bike shop in this situation. (I'm a wheelbuilder with 30 years experience). The shop is left with the situation, if they say 'we can't true it, it's too far gone' the customer may think 'hmm they're trying to pull a fast one and get me to buy a new wheel' or he may think 'they're useless I'll go to the other shop' so they lose a sale. I'd think you'll be best by saying to them 'is it too far gone? is that why it's broken again?' and they may rebuild it with a new rim (which is probably what it needs)and may offer to take off some of what they charged for the last job. If they don't, well you're on their good customer list anyway! But if you approach them by questioning the quality of their work, then you won't be their friend.
I learnt the hard way many years ago, when a customer had a 28 spoke rear wheel - brought it to me on a Saturday 'I'm racing tomorrow can I pick it up later'. I did the job, but said to him 'It's not good, really needed a new rim' Next day at the end of the race in front of everyone he said ' Not Happy my wheel broke a spoke in the race' All I could do was say 'well I did say it needed a new rim.' So I should have really refused the job (didn't have a 28 in stock that day), and I add that I didn't build the original wheel!

[carreauchompeur]

Bugger, sounds like it might be a new wheel then. These were the first item on eBay:

Shimano R500/R501 700c Road Bike Wheel Set F + R PAIR BLACK

Cheap enough, certainly.

[gazza285]

If it has got to the stage of one spoke breaking, then the rest will be on a similar condition. First ones to go are usually the drive side ones which come under tension as you pedal.

[anonymous-user]

Also had 3 spokes break within a few weeks of each other, lbs kept fixing it but I lost faith with it and had a custom wheel made elsewhere (I'm a big lump and needed an ultra strong wheel). No issues since and total faith in the new wheel

[curtisl]

I've had two go on the rear in the seven months of owning the bike from new. I have been promised a new wheel through warranty but still no news after one week. I haven't hit any bad potholes but it's had 1500 road miles so has had a few bumps along the way. At first I was told it must have been a bad spoke, then I was told it was a bad wheel. Maybe it's just spokes are consumables now?

[Fastpedeller]

I build my own wheels and have never had a spoke break. Well I did - but not a wheel I built....
Bought a very cheap MTB from Halfrauds 8 years ago. Within 2 weeks the rear wheel was breaking spokes - this was due to the flange on the hub being too thin (used to be a common problem years ago). Didn't bother with taking it back to the vendor I could have put thin brass washers under the heads to sort it, but as I wanted to upgrade to a cassette hub, I just bought one of those and 36 spokes. Using the same rim I rebuilt the wheel with the new hub, and no probs since.
Generally the tension in machine built wheels isn't high enough - which leads to breaks (not the only cause though)