I was out on the road today, and ten miles in a spoke on the front went bang, and I found a nipple had sheared. I couldn’t replace it in situ as I couldn’t get the broken nipple off, so ziptied it to the nearest spoke and rode another twenty miles on it.

My question – how weakened is a road wheel with a broken spoke, and was it liable to taco given the extra stress? The wheel is an Easton EA50 aero, and I’m 12 stone.

unlikely to collapse unless you hit something big, hard near the missing spoke.

That’s good to know. It’s all fixed now, but I’m concerned that it’ll happen again on another spoke given how easily that one came apart.

Alloy nipples?

Id personally never lace radial with alloy nips.

Yeah, alloy nipples on a factory build. I have never had a brass nipple fail, but plenty of alloys…