Forum menu
why dose my mates r...
 

[Closed] why dose my mates rear wheel keep snapping a spoke?

Posts: 0
Free Member
Topic starter
 
[#1263277]

hi everyone. One of my riding mates has snapped a spoke three times now on his meta 5.5. Could there be a reason it keeps snapping? He says it is snapping when he puts pressure on the pedals.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:47 pm
Posts: 41395
Free Member
 

Same spoke? (unlikely - probably a crap build, Get it rebuilt, under warranty if possible).


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:49 pm
Posts: 2399
Full Member
 

He's a fat bugger? ๐Ÿ˜‰

It might be that at some point he dropped the chain over the top and the damaged spokes are now snapping finally, or that the wheel wasn't built brilliantly or he's just unlucky.....


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:52 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
Topic starter
 

not sure if its the same spoke. But when we at kielder last weekend he pulled away on a hill and it went 'PING' & thats the 3rd spoke he has had to replace now.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:54 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

As above. Rubbish build or damage you can't readily see. Drive or non drive side? Has he checked the tension in the other spokes?


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:54 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I'm a biffer and had this on my commuter. I went through about 5 spokes and then thought sod this and got the wheel rebuilt. No problems since.
Get it rebuilt with DT Swiss spokes if he's a biffer.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:56 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
Topic starter
 

haha he is a bit podgy! schmiken


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:56 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I've had some wheels that kept doing that, in the end I switched LBS got them rebuilt and the problem went away.

One issue is if its a crappy build the spokes can be over tensioned and then snap, and once you have started losing them (I was doing 1 per ride at one point) your ****ed really.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:57 pm
Posts: 1
Free Member
 

which end are the spokes snapping?


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 6:59 pm
Posts: 21643
Full Member
 

it's either a bad build or bad spokes. Either way, a rebuild will sort it.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:02 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I had the same problem with my Meta, the sun ringle wheels on mine snapped a different spoke 3 times. I took it back to Evans twice under warranty, after the 3rd break I went to a decent bike shop instead & had it checked, All the spokes were over tightened.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:04 pm
 mrmo
Posts: 10720
Free Member
 

i can think of three reasons, crap build/spokes, heavy rider or a rider who rides heavy (ie doesn't try to unweight, crashes through things rather than trying to go round etc)


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:15 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

is he any good at divining water? perhaps he's just locating underground streams?


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:19 pm
Posts: 10498
Free Member
 

I'd say awesome power output myself, if he pulled away from you on a hill and then a spoke went ping, clearly the build can't cope with his massive quad output and instead of the wheel spinning (probably already melted to super tacky compound - another side effect of awesome power) the weakest thing will go.

The chain will also have super air hardened due to the heat, again caused by awesome power ๐Ÿ˜†


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:24 pm
Posts: 3
Free Member
 

y'all need (not want) the park tensionometer

[url] http://www.parktool.com/products/detail.asp?cat=16&item=TM-1 [/url]

I defy anyone to "guess" spoke tension to within the accuracy this baby delivers.

I brought one for my first wheel build, its a piece of cake with one of these.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:25 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

One of my riding mates with a meta 5.5 also had this problem with the original rear wheel. He eventually replaced it with a hope hoop I think. He'd had it in to the LBS for a rebuild and it still happened after.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:31 pm
Posts: 23
Full Member
 

As mentioned above I had this problem for about a year, many years ago. It was only after about the 4th or 5th new spoke that the wheel builder noticed that most of the spokes on that side (rear wheel) were heavily scored. The cause, as mentioned above was a chain over-running the cassette and jamming down between spokes and cassette. This damaged a lot of spokes. Re-build and now very rarely break spokes.

Worth looking at.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 7:40 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

Very common problem.

There's a thing called a "failure mode bathtub". It means that if things are made in the same way, fitted and used in the same way, they will on average fail at about the same time.

Also, when one breaks, the others get stressed more which can make them fail sooner.

Get new spokes and build it yourself, it's not that hard if you go slow and follow instructions carefull, and quite relaxing too.


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 8:10 pm
Posts: 4789
Free Member
 

Built my own wheels and used the plucking spoke method to get tension on each side even on my nice long 29er spokes - if you have a good ear then this works fine - either way uneven spoke tension makes for a crap wheel


 
Posted : 26/01/2010 8:35 pm
Posts: 41395
Free Member
 

fotorat - Member
y'all need (not want) the park tensionometer

http://www.parktool.com/products/detail.asp?cat=16&item=TM-1

I defy anyone to "guess" spoke tension to within the accuracy this baby delivers.

I brought one for my first wheel build, its a piece of cake with one of these.

On most rims "as tight as reasonably possible" is as good.


 
Posted : 27/01/2010 11:41 am
Posts: 0
 

On my Orange Evo4 I was getting this problem and it turned out that my cassette was rubbing on the spokes causing a weak spot. I don't expect it to be a common problem and should be obvious but worth a look.


 
Posted : 29/01/2010 12:22 pm
Posts: 1
Free Member
 

I used to get spokes snapping after about a year of use when I rode Marins. They use very thin (OEM DT Revolutions?) spokes and I found that after one or two had snapped (always at the elbow) the best thing to do was re-build the wheel using DT Comps.


 
Posted : 29/01/2010 12:29 pm
Posts: 0
Free Member
 

I was experiencing regular spoke failures on the back end of my Meta 5.
After about the third day in a row being blighted by the same thing, I got it rebuild by a highly respected local wheelbuilder (and author of a certain book).
Needless to say, the wheel has been perfect since.

y'all need (not want) the park tensionometer

Interesting thing was that whilst he built it by pitch, he then showed me three different tensiometers to illustrate that, whilst they'll show you've achieved some consistancy, you certainly can't believe the absolute numerical reading they give... 'cos they all showed considerably different readings on the same spoke!!!


 
Posted : 29/01/2010 1:03 pm
 sv
Posts: 2815
Free Member
 

Interesting thing was that whilst he built it by pitch, he then showed me three different tensiometers to illustrate that, whilst they'll show you've achieved some consistancy, you certainly can't believe the absolute numerical reading they give... 'cos they all showed considerably different readings on the same spoke!!!

...and has now written an article on it:

[url= http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/admin/spoke_tensiometers.php ]Wheelpro link[/url]

Although you do need a login! Just buy the book ๐Ÿ˜‰


 
Posted : 29/01/2010 1:10 pm
Posts: 41395
Free Member
 

Sufficient consistency in tension is achivable without tensionometers IMO.


 
Posted : 29/01/2010 1:13 pm
Posts: 14774
Free Member
 

I've built wheels for myself (heavy rider) for years with nothing but the note of a plucked spoke to tell me the tension, never had one fail.
Presumably its trailing spokes on the drive-side that are failing?


 
Posted : 29/01/2010 2:08 pm