Hi all,
on my e-bike commuter I break spokes on a regular basis. Power + weight + increasingly imperfect wheel.
Replacement involves first bending the new spoke to get it into position (i.e. past the flange and counter spoke), obviously this is bad but I see no other option other than loosening most of the incumbent spokes - and after that re-trueing the wheel from scratch.
An I missing some big trick or how does every one repair single broken spokes.
Thanks
Matt
Spokes don't mind a little bending, don't worry about that. Sometimes you basically have to undo the corresponding spoke to get it past though.
TBH if you're breaking spokes commuting regularly something's wrong, even on an ebike. But that's not really diagnosable over the internet. Badly uneven spoke tension can put a huge load on just a few spokes but that ought to be pretty obvious, other'n that even cheap spokes should be up to the job. Where do they break?
If you're breaking spokes regularly, I'd do a full rebuild of the wheel with new set of decent heavy gauge spokes and brass nipples. Reuse the rim if its reasonably straight and you can't see any little cracks starting to radiate from the spoke holes.
If it's done right by a decent wheel builder it should last ages.
I do what Jamie said on the rare occasion I break one.
If you're breaking them often and not while riding hard (what's your commute like?) then there's something amiss with the wheel generally, what tthew said should work
Don't use the nipple as a way to straighten the wheel once the new spoke is installed. Try flexing the wheel and then tighten the spoke. Agree that loosening off all the spokes and then tension them all again would probably sort your wheels uneven spoke tension.
Make sure you destress the wheel and give the spokes a quick tension after the wheel has been ridden.
After you've snapped more than a couple of spokes, I kinda figure any further replacements are just to tide you over until you've got time to do a full rebuild.
Agree, something is not right if it is regular occurrence. An e-bike is only adding 250w isn't it so total watts is still not exactly massive assuming you are not putting out 2,000w yourself
Sounds like the spokes are already over-stressed and will continue to break unless the spokes are replaced and retensioned evenly. If it’s a rear wheel, then you’d probably go for drive-side only, but fit stronger spokes.
Commute is 15 miles each way with a mix of farm-tracks and county roads. I also run narrow tires at a high pressure for low rolling resistance . So quite heavy use. Will bodge it this time - and do rebuild in couple of weeks.