Originally Posted by bkw99

There are some parts of this story I left out because I didn't want to get into the details, but I guess I should share it..

It all started when I broke a spoke on the bike rear wheel. Knowing practically nothing about spokes or tension, I thought I could just replace the spoke, tighten it and all would be fine and dandy. Well, come to find out IT'S DIFFICULT and since this time I've probably broken six more spokes after replacing them because I screwed up all the tensions and now they are all on the loose end. I ended up buying a spoke tension meter that should be here in a little over a week. I'm hoping this will help me tension the spokes right, but I have a hunch it's not going to be that easy as the old spokes seem to be a harder metal than the newer ones I'm putting on and so tensions may vary (they are the correct length though).

I've been battling these spokes and a wobbly wheel for some time now. I think I fix the tensions, and a couple hours later another spoke breaks and the wheel goes into wobbling again, and the cycle repeats. Now I'm at the point where I want to just replace the entire wheel instead of dealing with this mess.

I did notice what looked like a crack in the rim, so this is why I thought I might as well replace the rim, but it might be where the seams meet since it's an aluminum rim and the "crack" is opposite of the valve as someone had mentioned.

In all honesty, I wouldn't mind spending up to $150 JUST to replace the back wheel and rid myself of this spoke tension nightmare. On the other hand, I feel like if it's just the spokes then I should be able to fix it myself with the right tools and knowledge. I'm also timid to take it to a shop because I live in Manhattan and I feel like they will charge me a ton to fix it.

Thoughts?



I live in Manhattan and I worry it's going to cost a lot to fix. I bought the bike used for 250.00 and I'm assuming to fix it might be close to that, but I suppose I won't know until I take it to the shop. Any ideas what it might cost me?