I’ve pretty much had enough of broken spokes.  As you know, I respoked the wheel of my old shopping bike shortly before it’s careless loss, and replaced it a few months later.  I fixed one broken spoke at my expense on the replacement, and took the bike back to Giant to fix two more under warranty within the year.  In the last three months, it has accumulated three more, and I have pretty much had enough of it.

Anyone that blames my tremendous - possibly excessively - manly figure had better be prepared to break into a run if they say that to my face.

Anyway, I’ve had enough of broken spokes, and I am swithering between completely respioking the wheel or swapping the cassette with my mountain bike wheel….

If you can't count on the local experts to do the job right, do it yourself.  Get suitable double or triple butted spokes and spend an evening lacing it up.

 

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

 

Use an old fork if wide enough, or the frame flipped over, as a wheel building stand if you don't have one.  Centering the rim on the hub will be more difficult with a rear wheel, but is doable.

 

What rim and hub do you have?

How many spokes?

 

Simplest would be to simply replace the same length spokes in the same pattern with the same hub and rim.  But you can calculate changes.

 

https://www.prowheelbuilder.com/spokelengthcalculator/

 

 

Trying to use a lightweight vehicle as a Mack truck?

On 7/19/2023 at 8:47 AM, Skipalongcassidy said:

Trying to use a lightweight vehicle as a Mack truck?

I would describe myself as robust rather than humungeous, and they’re 32 spoke wheels.  I’ve not even been loading up two cases of beer, due to the slightly narrower carrier compared to the previous shopping bike.  

That bike also suffered from broken spokes…

Anyway, the rear wheel is in the shop, the bike is up on the stand, I cycled my road bike into the office today with a backpack, and recommissioned the mountain bike to cycle across to the pub for dinner and to buy milk and beer from the supermarket next door.

 

32 spoke wheels on average can withstand 150kg... that's total weight (you/bike/cargo)... given that when new... with continued heavy weight the spokes start to deteriorate and over time will no longer support the weight...

22 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

I would describe myself as robust rather than humungeous, and they’re 32 spoke wheels.  I’ve not even been loading up two cases of beer, due to the slightly narrower carrier compared to the previous shopping bike.  

That bike also suffered from broken spokes…

Anyway, the rear wheel is in the shop, the bike is up on the stand, I cycled my road bike into the office today with a backpack, and recommissioned the mountain bike to cycle across to the pub for dinner and to buy milk and beer from the supermarket next door.

 

The mountain bike has seen most action in service of my buddy’s sister, who joins us for a ride when she’s in-country.  It’s too small for me, but with the seat tube extended an inch beyond the limit mark, I can get by.  It is heavy, and the wide handlebars catch a lot of wind, but the 3x 10 SRAM gears are magic - like firing bullets. And it’s never suffered a broken spoke.

On 7/22/2023 at 4:44 AM, Skipalongcassidy said:

32 spoke wheels on average can withstand 150kg... that's total weight (you/bike/cargo)... given that when new... with continued heavy weight the spokes start to deteriorate and over time will no longer support the weight...

According to the bill, he respoked a 28 spoke wheel, and when I counted them, he was not wrong.

Three broken spokes on a 28 spoke wheel is probably not good....