sloar 

I've ran into several problems building my new frame. A few issues I've never ran into before. Not to mention delayed shipping and a few things breaking, my fault but we won't get into that. I finally finished yesterday and took my first ride today. I rode 20 miles into a headwind, looking forward for another 20 with a tailwind. As soon as I turned around a spoke broke, causing the wheel to become totally out of true. I unhooked the brake and slowly crawled my way home. Of course it was the rear wheel, driveside. 30 years of riding and racing I have never broken
A spoke.What next?

Bikerider007

That sucks but at least it hasn't hurt you (yet?), I have one that is possessed.

qcpmsame 

Just do not ever say, "it cannot get any worse", trust me it can and will.

Bill

fender1

Name it "Christine"? ;-). That does suck though. I had the same thing happen with a Trek 710 I dumped lots of money into...new paint, canti studs, fenders, racks and no matter what I did, something was always breaking, coming undone, rubbing or just plain not working the way it should. Drove me insane. After I threw the chain on the TA cranks for the umpteenth time, I lost my cool and sold the frame/fork on ebay. I got $183 for something I spent $600+ on and was happy again.

Spaghetti Legs 

Nahh, just jinxed. A jinx will pass while a curse is forever. Think of the broken spoke as the grand finale.

I have a Merckx Century frame that seemed like a really good deal at the time, but the chrome is way worse than it seemed in the pictures. Also had - first time for me- jacked up threads on the shifter bosses and derailleur hanger. I had to buy taps to get those sorted out. I still feel like it will be a sweet bike when I get it up and running.

Edit: Just saw your bike in the Merckx thread. That is nice!

eschlwc

same thing happened to my davidson when i got it. it's the only time i've broken a spoke.

fortunately, i found another bike to flip that needed a wheelset, and built new wheels for the davidson.

when does n+1 not help? B^)

jimmuller 

First broken spoke in how many years? 30? You lead a charmed life. Or at least you did until now.

styggno1

Never broken a spoke (30+ years into the sport/hobby). I build my own wheels and I have always used DT, Swiss spokes and quality hubs (Mavic and Campag) and rims (Mavic, Campag, etc). Four cross, three cross, two, radial and combinations of them. I am a roadie and I have often wondered about how people break their spokes on road bikes. I guess chain stepping over the last cog and getting tangled up there would be a disaster (never happened to me though). What other causes are there (still talking road)? Overtensioned spokes?

Edit - by the way - I am a heavy guy and coming from powersports originally. I am not easy on the material.

qcpmsame 

The plenteous, sharp edged pot holes we are so blessed with here in all 50 states, just let your self lose concentration for a minute, then the jolt when you hit one of them, and that sharp pinging noise the breaking spoke makes, tells you that you well and truly just screwed the pooch on this one. A nice curb will do the trick, as you swerve to avoid the loose child riding their training wheeled bike in the roadway.

And, I am sure your suggestion about over-tensioned spokes would work really well, also.

Bill

styggno1

Haha! I understand. We do have them (pot holes, curbs and children) over here too. All of them concentrated to the citys though. And there I would never let myself lose concentration for a hundred of a second. Where most om my biking take (more of took - nowadays) place none of them are a problem. Getting a quality ride takes me outside "the danger zone" and to more rural areas - where the roads are excellent here. Sweden is on the 194: th place when it comes to countries and density of population - when getting out of a city there is a lot of space and good roads.

dailycommute

W, TH, F last week on commute home 3x flats on 3x bikes (after about 5k worth riding with no road flats). More glass roadside than past years, but things do love to come in 3s!

Had a very similar thing happen on the stock fuso I picked up last year, hardly ridden does not equate possible problems, in my case riding a racing wheel on 190lbs. Cracked the eyelet and entire spoke started to pull through (after bombing down a huge hill). Had the LBS rebuild the hub on a much better rim for my needs and no worries since.

qcpmsame 

Sounds like heaven to me, I live in a rural, agricultural area, and it varies between newly, well paved roadways to horrid older roads with loose gravel, and exposed sharp edged aggregates, that give the Belgian and French cobbles a run for their money. I wish that our country would wake up about infrastructure deterioration, (said the civil engineer) but I also want world peace, and I don't see either one happening any time soon, if ever.

Bill