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Have you ever broken a front spoke?

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Have you ever broken a front spoke?

Old 01-11-22, 03:32 AM
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MyRedTrek
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Have you ever broken a front spoke?

Assuming your regular riding is on paved surfaces, not bombing down mountain trails, jumping off elevated surfaces onto pavement below or other bike-abusive situations.

Have you ever had a front spoke break just riding along? I've had a number of rear spokes break which is why I just went to a 36-spoke wheel with triple-butted spokes, but so far have never had a front spoke break.
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Old 01-11-22, 03:45 AM
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Been wrenching bikes since the late-60's, and I've built and repaired a lot of wheels. Now that I think back, I don't recall seeing a front wheel with a snapped spoke. Oh, I've seen taco'ed front wheels, and curb-crashed rims, and so on, but never a spoke failure akin to the ones you see on the drive-side of a rear wheel. Thinking even further along these lines, the only broken spokes - from normal riding - that I have ever seen were on the rear wheels of derailleur-shifted bikes. My first job was in a Raleigh shop, and I have worked on many Sturmey-Archer IGH, and I do not recall ever seeing a broken spoke, only from freewheel/freehub wheels. I suspect it has much to do with the dish needed to clear the gear clusters.
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Old 01-11-22, 06:37 AM
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I've broken a lot of spokes but only twice front spokes.

The first doesn't really count - I was transporting our family bikes back from vacation one year and also had a car battery in the pickup truck bed. One of the bikes fell over, and a front wheel spoke must have shorted across the battery terminals - when I went to unpack, I saw what had happened and that spoke had completely vaporized!

The other time was on my Schwinn hybrid. bombing down a hill with cars on my left and with a guardrail on my right. I saw a pothole coming but I there was a car just behind me on the left so I had to brace and go through the pothole. Barely stayed upright and once I could think again I could see the front wheel wobbling. I stopped at next chance, spoked was busted so I had to open up front brakes and limp to the end of the ride.

Brought to bike shop and they pointed out I had cracked the rim, so really never had to get that spoke replaced, since the rim had to be replaced!
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Old 01-11-22, 06:48 AM
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Nope, never have on my touring bike, winter hybrid, tandem, old Schwinn "The Tank" Varsity,...
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Old 01-11-22, 06:54 AM
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Originally Posted by MyRedTrek
Assuming your regular riding is on paved surfaces, not bombing down mountain trails, jumping off elevated surfaces onto pavement below or other bike-abusive situations.
Bombing down mountain trails is bike abusive?

I feel so guilty, now.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:05 AM
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Never after 40,000 miles in the past 11 years.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:06 AM
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Yes. On a cheap set of wheels.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:08 AM
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Originally Posted by MyRedTrek
Assuming your regular riding is on paved surfaces, not bombing down mountain trails, jumping off elevated surfaces onto pavement below or other bike-abusive situations.

Have you ever had a front spoke break just riding along? I've had a number of rear spokes break which is why I just went to a 36-spoke wheel with triple-butted spokes, but so far have never had a front spoke break.
Out of curiosity: what is your weight, and what type of bike?
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Old 01-11-22, 07:14 AM
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unterhausen
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I had one break on a factory built wheel. Lots of miles on that wheel and I'm pretty sure it was just one spoke. I think it might be a case of low tension.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:17 AM
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No
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Old 01-11-22, 07:20 AM
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I went through 4 or 5 broken front spokes with my Bianchi Eco Pista, bought new in 1983. Finally wised up and retensioned the wheel. I probably replaced all of the spokes before retensioning, but I don't remember.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:34 AM
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No, but I may be spoking to soon.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:36 AM
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Originally Posted by Koyote
Originally Posted by MyRedTrek View Post
Assuming your regular riding is on paved surfaces, not bombing down mountain trails, jumping off elevated surfaces onto pavement below or other bike-abusive situations.

Have you ever had a front spoke break just riding along? I've had a number of rear spokes break which is why I just went to a 36-spoke wheel with triple-butted spokes, but so far have never had a front spoke break.
Out of curiosity: what is your weight, and what type of bike?
Substantially north of 200 lbs - Trek Verve 2 hybrid.
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Old 01-11-22, 07:45 AM
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Originally Posted by MyRedTrek
Substantially north of 200 lbs - Trek Verve 2 hybrid.
Thanks for the info. Yeah, then a 36h wheel might be a good idea, esp on a bike that's not designed for maximum speed.

For my most recent new bike, I asked the shop to build 32h wheels. They tried to convince me that was too many spokes (it's a gravel bike, and I am <170lbs), but I'm conservative on those things. And no, I don't recall ever breaking a spoke on a front wheel.
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Old 01-11-22, 08:26 AM
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I ride 20 radial CX-ray front and have not broken one in 8 years. I am very light. Me and bikie go 200-250 depending on the fitness/fatness quotient and the amount of crap I am carrying.

I had a pretty decent level Miyata back in the day and broke one front spoke (tension). Other than that, never broke a front spoke and very rarely broke a rear spoke and never once on a wheel that I built.
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Old 01-11-22, 08:54 AM
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I've broken a few, but it's pretty rare. Which is a shame, because I'd much rather replace a front spoke than a drive side rear!

A front spoke coming loose is pretty obvious, pretty fast, so I've got time to fix it before it fatigues and breaks. Unlike a NDS rear spoke.
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Old 01-11-22, 08:56 AM
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Nope!
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Old 01-11-22, 09:01 AM
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Only once, on the Dynohub front wheel of my Raleigh Superbe.
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Old 01-11-22, 09:02 AM
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Never had the familiar stinging "Ping!" from a front wheel spoke.
Finally figured out to lift my sizable posterior off the saddle when going over rough terrain and now rear spokes pinging are becoming more rare.
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Old 01-11-22, 09:49 AM
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Sort of . Front wheel with 32 2-cross DT Revolution spokes, a very solid wheel build. Stood up on a steep climb and heard the pop. What broke was actually an alloy nipple which had corroded and resembled swiss cheese in cross section. Was able to save the spoke and replaced the nipples with brass as soon as I got back home. Since then I only use brass nipples.
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Old 01-11-22, 10:26 AM
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I broke one 40 years ago, when I yanked the caliper brake hard and it did stop the rim fast. Spoke was right beside the brake.
It was a steel rim and had galvanized spokes.
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Old 01-11-22, 01:46 PM
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Nope and the only one I ever saw looked like abuse.
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Old 01-11-22, 03:09 PM
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Only once on an old Libertas tandem. That was over 30 years ago and many, many, many hard mountain bike miles as well as loaded touring miles. I haven’t even seen a broken from spoke on the thousands of bikes I’ve work on at the local co-op.
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Old 01-11-22, 04:11 PM
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I've broken 3 front spokes, all in a month-long period while on a tour. I was riding a Bianchi Volpe with 32-spoke wheels. I had front panniers, but they did not have much weight. It was the same setup I used in our ride across the U.S. the previous summer .

It think the main problem was caused by me riding right off of a tall curb, and landing pretty hard on the front wheel. It was raining as we approached the train station at the start of the tour. It was raining hard and I could barely see through my classes. I missed the driveway going down and just rode off the curb- operator error The first one broke at about 200 miles and then they kept breaking at about that interval. I had the wheel trued and tensioned right before we left.
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Old 01-11-22, 04:43 PM
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I have yet to break a spoke anywhere while riding.
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