About a month after taking the plunge and going tubeless I have broken a spoke in my rear wheel. My questions are:

Has anyone managed to replace a broken spoke without taking the tyre and rim strip off? Some kind of bodgery with an adjustable spinner and some luck screwing the nipple onto the spoke? Or just impossible in practice?

Then, assuming I do have to strip the tyre and tape off – any tips on strip removal as I imagine I’ll need to be careful not to stretch/fold/tear the strip. Can I reserve the sealant or do I need to replace with new?

Probably all obvious stuff, but I want to minimize the faff and potential for having to replace the rim strip etc…..

All help gratefully received.

I’ve done it before, but it was on a bike trip, if at home, I’d have taken the rim tape off and done it properly – 3M rim tape is cheap on the bay, and in all honesty it would probably be about as quick too.

If you take the tyre off carefully, you can leave the sealant in there. It’s a good excuse to see how the sealant is bearing up, you may need to top up as it’s a new set up.

just cut away a piece of tape where the spoke is broken. I have a scalpel but other blades are available. remove and replace broken spoke, retape over.

edit sorry just realised its a strip not tape. as above then

I never use to even take inner tubes out when replacing a spoke. Whats changed? Just undo the nipple and be careful not to drop it in the rim. Rotate the wheel so that spoke is at the top.

If you have even a minor tendency to hamfist, pull a thin ziptie tight over the spoke nipple to act as a collar, then it can’t fall into the rim, but you can still get a spoke key on the flats to hold it still and turn the spoke out of the nipple.

Replace with new spoke, thread into nipple, and then cut the ziptie back off, retension, job done.

You don’t need to be that careful with a rim strip. I just pry them off and put them back on again, no bother.

It is however possible to replace a spoke with the tyre still on, if you are careful 🙂 I’ve done it before.

Managed it with the tyre and strip still on. I forgot that the spoke nipples are those funny Mavic ones with the threaded ‘cone’ rather than a ‘screw head’. So it wouldn’t go back into the rim at all as the tape and strip won’t let it. I hadn’t used to like those spoke nipples as they are just yet another ‘you have to buy the right tool from us first’ bit of inbuilt non-compatibility, but this time I’m happy they are!

I never use to even take inner tubes out when replacing a spoke. Whats changed? Just undo the nipple and be careful not to drop it in the rim. Rotate the wheel so that spoke is at the top.

This

Where has it broken? If you can get the old spoke out of the nipple, crack on. If the nipple has seized or the spoke has broken at the nipple, you’ll need to strip it all down to replace the nipple as well.