Broke a driveside rear spoke in an unfortunate incident at the weekend but I just wrapped it around another spoke and carried on riding (10 miles of gnar across Cannock and back home)

Bought a spoke from the lbs this morning (85p) and the counter jockey recommended ‘booking the wheel in’ to get the spoke fitted and the wheel ‘sorted out’ 😯

Is it not simply a matter of removing the old spoke and fitting the new one to the same tension as the other spokes, or am I sadly deluded and the wheel will explode in flames?

Cheers

You’ll need to fit it and then(probably) true the wheel.

It’s not rocket science but truing can be a bit of an “art”. Google for instructions and give it a go. It won’t explode and you won’t die!

agree with the above, but just be aware you’ll most probably have to remove the cassette so you can thread the spoke through the hub flange

I’ve been running a rear wheel with 31 spokes for over a year – it stayed true so I just left it. I haven’t died yet.

Did exactly this on saturday mornings shed time.
Fished an old USED spoke from my collection of spares (same length, colour, make etc), removed the broken spoke, reused the nipple, tensioned it until it sounded about right and tweaked the wheel. Job done. Will check it again once I’ve ridden it properly.

It’s a piece of piss, and not worth paying someone to do it for you IMO…

There are far too many relatively simple jobs that seem to be “Over-hyped” as some sort of dark art, wheel Repair/building/truing certainly fall into that category…

Fit it yourself, you might learn something….

Wheel building is a very relaxing and rewarding pastime indeed.

Fished an old USED spoke from my collection of spares

I like to live life on the edge as well but I hadn’t got a spare 260 🙂

Anyway thanks for the feedback

Said spoke has now been fitted and I am still here. I tightened it a little at a time until it felt the same as the other drive side spokes and the wheel hasn’t imploded or gone 8-shaped. A quick spin up the road and back and it seems OK

To me it seems one spoke out of 32 isn’t going to make that much difference but then again what do I know 😕

You will have to remove the cassette and you might have to remove the disc too. You might have to remove the rim tape unless you can unscrew the old nipple nicely and it stays in place.

When you replace the spoke make sure it goes under, over and under (or over, under and over) the spokes it crosses just like all the others on the same side pointing in the same direction. Then just tighten it up so the wheel isn’t buckled.

Said spoke has now been fitted and I am still here. I tightened it a little at a time until it felt the same as the other drive side spokes and the wheel hasn’t imploded or gone 8-shaped. A quick spin up the road and back and it seems OK

You might hear it pinging occasionally as the twist comes out (unless you destressed it) this is normal and doesn’t signify impending doom 🙂

Re-check the tension / trueness and tweak if necessary after a couple of rides.