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On my Pinnacle Litium 3 on the rear wheel.
First broke a few months ago. I have never had this happen before, I've probably been lucky, but what can cause spokes to break ? Is it potholes or just bad luck ?
Just wondering if the spokes are upto the weight of my panniers as I'm probably carrying 10 ish Kgs over both rear panniers, but then again, if I was 10 kg fatter that would be same weight.
Is it worth looking at getting the wheel rebuilt with better spokes or just replace and see what happens ?
Thanks
Of several go over time, one at a time, it can often be an unevenly tensioned wheel.
once they start to go the wheel is finished. Get it rebuilt with new spokes
yeah probably uneven tension unless your chain has dropped off and damaged the spokes etc. On each side of the wheel the spokes should be a pretty even tension, ie if you pluck them the tone should be fairly even all the way round that side, any wildly low or higher tensions will lead to some spokes doing too much work under load and snapping. Check all the tensions when you replace the broken one.
I'm with TJ on this. I've had a wheel i ended up chasing spokes on. In the end I got it rebuilt with new spokes.
+1 TJ if spokes go frequently without some major trauma then it was either poorly built or inadequately specced, the solution in both cases is a new wheel (though the choice of wheel depends on your diagnosis of the two cases).
Ignore it’s an OEM wheel its bribaby crap quality spies and/or poor build quality (not tight enough generally)
If it’s one or two, don’t worry, once it’s past that it’s generally cheaper to buy a new wheel than have one rebuilt these days.
^ I'll have a pint of what PeterPoddy's having - or had, more likely 🙂
Assuming that as you have panniers you are commuting and may lock up your bike. So do you use U rack or the ones that hold just a wheel? I went through a spate of broken spokes when I used those, my theory was that the lateral forces stressed the spokes in a way they weren’t designed for.
Thanks for the replies.
I use the bike for work as I teach Bikeabilty and when I lock it up, it's just to railings etc.
I'm gong to have this spoke replaced and check how tight the rest are and if this keeps happening, I will just get another wheel. Merlin have some suitable, Deore hubs, Mavic rim for about £75.
My lbs years ago fixed this for me, they detensioned all the spokes, replaced the broken ones and retensioned/trued. Old boy said it was quicker and cheaper than a full new spoke rebuild and normally fixes it. Worked great, still got the wheel on my racer with no issues.
If you have the skills, just de tension and re tension yourself.
Right, been back today and they replaced the spoke, checked the rest of them and trued the wheel, cost me £18
The mechanics reckon the wheels that the bike came with are rubbish and they are not capable of carrying the weight of the panniers etc. They recommended new wheels with 32 or 36 spokes, built with good quality spokes and a decent rim.
They were talking about hope hubs which I know are good as I have them on my MTB but I'd rather not spend that kind of money on this bike as I take as much care of it as possible, but I have to leave it locked up in places that are not the best security wise due to my job.
Can anyone confirm their school of thought regarding 32 or 36 spokes and recommend either a wheel pre built or a Hub, spokes, rim combo I can buy and have built up ?
Thanks
There's certainly no need for a Hope hub/whee, lovely as it would be - I'm guessing this is just a road commuter with pannier?
There may well be an argument for beefing up the back wheel a bit. But personally I'd see how the wheel goes for a while and pick up something more robust for cheap on the classifieds if it fails again.
Yeah, it's a hybrid 700c disc wheels.
I know what they are saying and my MTB is pure Hope everything, but it's overkill for this bike. I just need reliable and not too expensive.
I can do a bit of maintenance but at the moment, I'm just so busy I can't take the time to tinker which is why I took it to the shop.
More spokes should equal stronger, it also equals more weight. It's road fashion to cut spoke count because pro. 36 spokes is probably unnecessary for most non-touring uses. Depends how much you're carrying really. I think you mentioned 10kg? Should think 32spoke wheels would be fine with that.
Hope hubs are ok, they're not particularly magical or super good, they're just easy to repair, serviceable and usually fairly reliable. If you're looking in that range, DT350's should probs be on your list too but if you're prepared to service cup and cone bearings there's no reason not to go Shimano and take £100 + off the cost of the wheel. If you do go cup and cone and they don't get serviced you'll be replacing the hub again at some point though, so be warned! 😉 Kind of depends on budget and priorities really.