dickbandit 

As the title states: One spoke is laced incorrectly!

Finished rebuilding a 1990 or 91 Davis Phinney Serotta this weekend and was getting it ready for its maiden voyage tomorrow. When I was inflating the tires I noticed that one of the spokes on the rear driveside is laced incorrectly. It does not cross where it should, it merely passes over the other spoke and consequently does not make contact.

I did not notice this when I was truing up the wheels, which were relatively true to begin with. My first assumption was that the spoke was replaced at some point by someone with little experience-- but I'm not so sure since rim tape matches on front and rear wheels and looks like 30 year old factory tape.

Anyway, if the rear is true and reasonably evenly tensioned should I be concerned about one spoke laced incorrectly? The rims are 32 hole for what its worth.

Or... should I be anal and rebuild the entire wheel even if there is a chance it has lived its entire life problem free?

iab

I don't think it matters, but I'm not a wheel building expert. But I do know enough about wheel building that relacing the spoke will take no more than 15 minutes of time. It's an easy fix.

gkamieneski

You’re always going to wonder about the strength of the wheel due to a misslaced spoke. Better to just pull the spoke and weave it correctly, then true the wheel.

P!N20

It won't make any difference to the strength of the wheel, but if it keeps you up at night...

79pmooney

There is one real safety consideration. It is up to you to balance the risks over the hassles you may well run into trying to correct what may have worked for thousands of miles for others. This could show up at any time and the consequences could be large. Funny, yesterday yo were save but no longer.

The issue is, very simply, that you now know. Are you sure this won't erupt into an obsession that leads to psychiatrists, life-long debt, perhaps long-term inpatient care? Do your best to sit down, objectively weigh the risks and benefits and proceed from there. I have the perhaps unusual ability to simply decide that I am going to ignore it until I have the wheel off the bike and rim tape off for some other reason. Maybe get organized enough to ask at a bike shop if they have a spoke and nipple of the same length and gauge. (It is not a given that you can unscrew that nipple and reuse it. Threads may be frozen or close enough that you destroy the wrench flats getting it off and it may have been previously stressed by less than careful spoke wrench use (or a poorly fitting wrench) This being a high quality bike, the odds are the nipple is just fine. But if you dive into this without a shop handy, you just might need another nipple. The current ones "should" be the same thread but again, that risk - you might have to miss tomorrow's ride!

oneclick 

They are supposed to cross; fix it.

It's because the spokes share the load a bit better. On spokes that have done many miles you can sometimes see a wear mark at the crossing point.

Just do that spoke, get the rim true after and the wheel will be *slightly* better built.

madpogue 

^^^^^ +1, treat it like any single spoke replacement. Re-lacing one spoke will take not much longer than reading this thread.....

thinktubes 

Fix it and sleep like a baby.

ThermionicScott 

Interlacing the spokes is good practice, and I do it, but the value is mostly at the edge case where spokes dip down toward zero tension while riding. Lots of wheels have been built without interlaced spokes over the years, and most of the time it goes unnoticed because no issues result. My 1964 Armstrong 3-speed's wheels weren't interlaced, for example.

So, if I found myself in possession of a wheel like the OP's, I would be conflicted. The OCD part of me would want to interlace the spoke because it is easy and quick to do (if it's a double-walled rim, you don't even need to take the tire off.) But another part of me might be curious to leave it be and view it as a long-term experiment to see what happens.

dickbandit 

Thank you everyone for your sensible words. Problems can seem so much more daunting at 10:30pm…

My compromise was to take the bike out tonight… and probably again on Saturday… knowing the wheel isn’t going to taco. And I’ll probably fix the errant spoke some evening next week.

repechage

My hunch the problem spoke is on the drive side of the rear wheel...
if so, shift small ring to largest cog ( lowest gear ) and double check the closeness of the errant spoke to the derailleur jockey cage.

if it appears very close or might contact if he rear wheel laterally deflected... don't use that low gear until the issue is resolved.

Dave Mayer

I agree that the errant spoke should be dealt with. This is a 5-minute job; you don't even have to take the tire off or even take the wheel off of the bike.

When you unwind the offending spoke, do NOT lose the nipple in the rim. Use a marker to make a mark on the spoke as to its depth in the nipple. When you rewind the nipple to the new position up against the mark, the rim will be very close to true.

Unsolicited advice: this generation of Shimano 600 is great stuff; it is clear why Shimano almost wiped out the Euro bike industry wholesale. The Shimano cogs and cassette system and shifting were a quantum jump over what even Campagnolo was offering at the time. However, your singe-pivot brakes are seriously underwhelming. Plus the brake pads that Shimano made at the time were dismal at stopping, and were only good at leaving disgusting black goo on rims when things got wet. I recommend replacing with Shimano 6403 dual pivot brakes for a major upgrade in power. Plus they self-center. Discard the original brake pads for some current Kool stops or the like.

dickbandit 

Thanks for the procedural advice!

Already swapped the pads and shoes for more
modern ultegra shoes and kool stop black pads before I even got it on the road.

Moe Zhoost

Likely the incorrectly laced spoke is a replacement. Because the mechanic took the easy way over the correct way, I'd be wary about other issues, so I'd correct the lacing at some early opportunity and also check tensions and dish while I'm at it. I don't want to imply that I think it's a critical problem, though. The wheel isn't going to fail, it just hasn't yet reached oneness with the cycling gods.

dickbandit 

It’s fixed everybody….

took ten minutes and the wheel is true, evenly tensioned and properly dished…


amen

OldCoot

I had to laugh at 'one' spoke is laced in correctly. Not possible, unless another spoke is missing ( doesn't that count as incorrectly too?). In my experience there's always another one in the wrong place that the incorrect one ( that you noticed) should go!

Glad you fixed it!

seedsbelize2

One of my bikes has been missing a rear spoke for well over a year. Need I say more?
Good onya for fixing it.