I_like_cereal

Another spoke broke.

Anyway, the vendor is not happy with the situation and we are trading phone calls.

Question is can I ride the thing home. Home is 10 miles up a 6% grade for most of it. The rear wheel is a 24 and now it is a 23 with a 1/2" wobble out of true. Once I get up the hill I can milk the ride from there. I also am down to the front brake cause the rear one is rubbing.

Thanks large.

himespau 

Half inch wobble sounds like an awful lot. Is this by any chance a carbon frame? If so, you might have to worry about wheel wearing down the carbon of the stays and having to replace the whole frame.

Bill Kapaun

Mashing up the hill will likely exacerbate the problem since 1/2 your spokes are trying to "unwind" when you apply force to the pedals.

fietsbob

you kids and your funny wheels
think you have a too low a spoke count fashion wheel,
in an off race-day situation.
but, really needed a boring normal spoke count wheel.

maybe OK if wheel diameter is small,
Bike Friday Tikit builds a 349 rim 24 spoke 16"

Brompton builds 28 spoke 349, but the rear is 12 gage.

On my 622-40 wheel , Loaded touring bike, rear,
when I broke 1 spoke I had 47 left.

CACycling

Did my 5 mile homebound commute on my old commuter with a broken spoke (24 spoke rear) but it didn't pull the wheel out nearly that far. Released the QR on the rear brake and rode with the front so I gave myself a bit of extra stopping distance just in case. And I'm in the 220 lb. range plus had my panniers pretty full.

FBinNY 

If then wheel is clearing the chainstays, you can release the rear brake and ride it. The hill is the issue, and that's hard to predict. If you have a smooth riding style, and generate torque through a decent part of the pedal circle, odds are you can gentle it up the hill. But if you have a spiky pedaling cadence, you only produce torque through a small arc and the peak torque therefore has to be greater, so it might be too much for the wheel.

I'm old school, and it takes an awful lot before I give up and walk or hitch a ride, so I'd give it a go. Worst case scenario, the wheel will deflect enough to rub, and you'll have to quit, but why cross that bridge before you get to it.


BTW- it may not be all or nothing. The grade probably varies, so you might ride most of it, but have to walk the steepest sections, or slalom the steepest sections to lower the grade (traffic permitting).

Doohickie

I'd be looking for a higher spoke count.

I_like_cereal

I do not think it is the spoke count. There are just too many people that have purchased these to have to spokes break so soon, 3,000 miles or less, and not have more poor reviews. My thought is that it is a problem with the spokes or tension or both.

I was sure that the hill would be hell so mass transit here I come.

FBinNY 

It's impossible to draw conclusions whether it was this one particular wheel, or if the type of wheels in unsuitable for your needs. You're right that the overall quality is probably OK otherwise there'd be more bad press.

OTOH, you already are riding longer, steeper climbs on a routine basis. If you add to that being much heavier than the 165# or so rider that people design around, and/or have a hart thrashing type of riding style, then these may not be suited to you. Only you know the answer, but if a 2nd low spoke count wheel doesn't hold up, consider it a sign and go back to 32h hand built wheels.

gmt13

Perhaps a substandard build with improper tensioning. Nevertheless, half an inch wobble with just one spoke should be telling you something.

-G

FBinNY 

Despite my 45 years experience, the only thing it tells me is that it's a low spoke count wheel (something I already know just looking).

With low spoke wheels every spoke is that much more critical, and the los. of a single spoke often causes that much movement. Especially if it's from the right side of a fairly high dish wheel. It might also indicate a rim that's somewhat more flexible (maybe lighter, maybe narrower) than some others.

BTW- years ago when were were routinely building 32h and 36h wheels using ultralight rims in the 260gram range you'd see the same deflection with the loss of a single spoke. Plus ca change...

fietsbob

He did blindly rely on strangers over the internet for advise in building the wheel,
in the 1st place..

reddog3

"Another spoke broke" doesn't tell us much because you didn't provide some history. "the vendor is not happy with situation and we are trading phone calls," does not give much to go on either. So what happened? Did you buy the wheel from them? Did they build the wheel in-house? Did you spec the wheel or did they? Was this an OEM wheel on a new bike?

I live here (PDX) and there's a whole lotta shops. Each has a "wheelbuilder." Some know what they're doing, and some don't. I know many who do, but more who don't.

We here on the forum don't know if you can ride it home or not. We're not there and don't have much to go on. Low spoke count being the problem? Again- not enough info.

You need to work it out with the "vendor" or find a different shop that can build you a wheel that suits your needs. They are out there, but to avoid the hassle I just do my own.

SortaGrey

Bold highlight mine.. be curious to the wheel make/built etc. Not that I don't believe you.. I just don't believe it.

CACycling

Formula CXR-6 stock wheelset on an '07 Schwinn Le Tour GS running 700x28 @ 110 psi. Broke two rear spokes at the beginning of the threads on the NDS of the rear wheel during the first couple of thousand miles I put on the bike (both trailing as I recall). The first was about 2 miles from home. I heard the ping as I was going through a roundabout in traffic so I kept riding. The rear brake was dragging a bit but nowhere close to being unrideable. When I cleared traffic, I stopped and opened the QR on the rear brake, rode home, replaced the spoke and was good to go. The second was right as I was leaving work. Heard the ping, stopped and saw another spoke had broken, opened the QR, wrapped the spoke around the one next to it, rode home, replaced the spoke and was good to go.

Put another 3K miles on the bike without another spoke issue. Would still be riding it but the driver of a Camry retired it for me.

Kimmo 

There should be a sticky telling folks to put their weight in any question about wheels.

It all depends what you weigh. 24h is touch-and-go for larger guys; you need the wheel to be well-built and well-designed.

What's win for everybody though, is reducing dish. Off-centre rims dramatically reduce dish, allowing NDS tension to go from 60% to more like 80% of DS. This makes a huge difference to the strength of the wheel.

Another thing that can help, is if your frames springs open a bit; re-dish the wheel with a spacer on the left to use up the gap - my '95 Giant CFR1 had a 135mm OLD, which was pretty cool. But you only gain half of any increase in OLD; that 5mm put my rim 2.5mm closer to the middle between the flanges. OCRs have an offset of something like 3 or 4mm, I think.

Depends how heavy the rim is. Velocity has a 770g deep rim available in 24h - that'd behave as described.

SortaGrey

Methinks some of today's cars don't have rims that heavy.

Some of the challenge.. is for me lighter and accomplishing same. NOT a weight weenie here by miles.. just lighter can be just as strong... for practical purposes.