Mrs Kilo broke a spoke in her front wheel yesterday during a race, mechanic shop fixed it with new spoke and charged her for the service.

Today after the end of the stage and back at lodging I noticed the new spoke had sheared at the nipple. The mechanics were not on site (about an hours drive away) so I took it to a bike shop who put a new spoke in. Do you think the first mechanic should refund Mrs Kilo as his fix didn’t last a day?

How much was the spoke?

How much is your time worth?

The first mechanic rinsed my wife for 92 Canadian dollars the second charged nine bucks. The first guy was the race mechanic set up at the finish so screws a premium for that the second was a standard bike shop. I spoke to the first mechanic this evening but they blanked any refund whatsoever.

92 dollars for a spoke and wheel true? Is that a typo?

To be fair the wheel wasn’t out of true, so it was ninety two fit a spoke, they said they may have changed the rim tape to fit a new nipple, they weren’t sure without pulling the job card, but I suspect not.

92 dollars

Theirs premium and there is taking the **** piss.

Maybe there’s something else wrong with the wheel if it’s now snapped a 2nd spoke in the same spot? Is it 3 Cross j bend or straight pull?

Even still, that’s an outrageous cost for a new spoke. DT spokes are like 50p and normally come with a nipple I think, maybe new rim tape if tubeless.  Call it a 30 minute job for someone decent including clearing out old tubeless sealant to get the new tape to stick.

Even with 0.59 gbp to cad that’s still outrageous!

92 Canadian is close to £54…… To fit a spoke that lasted a day…

i suppose that’s the same as Mclaren fixing your car at a track day but it’s a lot for something that lasted 5mins. Are you sure the new spoke broke, not a different one?

The wheel looks ok, not out of true or dinged and Mrs kilo isn’t prone to ragging it on the dh runs so i suspect it was either a duff spoke or a duff job. The second mechanic didn’t find anything wrongbwithnthe wheel.

They are normal j bend and the wheels are a year or so old. The new spoke has a silver nipple unlike the originals which are black so it’s obvious it was the new one.

If I was a suspicious man, I’d suspect the first mechanic changed the spoke and not the nipple and had to bend the spoke to get it to go in, causing a weak point. Or some similar bodge.

good thing I’m not suspicious.

I’m not sure whether to 😂 or 😭

The new spoke has a silver nipple unlike the originals which are black so it’s obvious it was the new one.

If I was a suspicious man, I’d suspect the first mechanic changed the spoke and not the nipple and had to bend the spoke to get it to go in, causing a weak point. Or some similar bodge.

See the flaw in your logic there .

Spoke sheared at the nipple, or nipple sheared?

Former is very unusual. Latter is symptomatic of a spoke being too short and tension too high and stressing an alu nipple, and wouldn’t surprise me at all.

Often when one spoke breaks it’s a sign of problems with the entire wheel, not just that spoke. It merely is the weakest link.

In a race, I’d whack a new spoke in quickly and hope for the best. If the spoke wasn’t the perfect length, it’s still better than no spoke.

If I was fixing it at home, I’d loosen off all the spokes and retension and true the wheel when fitting the spoke.

Emergency repair is an emergency repair.

Ramsey – I’ll give you that one 😜

I suspect that the race mechanic had a limited number of spokes and didn’t have one that would fit but rather than loose a good earner  so just used the closest they had and to make it fit had to over tighten the spoke.

It got you back racing, that was the main thing. I’d just put it down to experience and next time carry spare spokes the correct length.

With disc wheels you can fix this yourself and patch the tubeless rim tape and then take it to a lbs later and get it trued properly.

Did the spoke break or pull out of the nipple? They seldom break at the nipple. I’d also suspect a too short spoke that was over-tightened to fit and pulled a few threads in the softer brass nipple after a hard run. The new spoke will probably be fine if it’s the correct length.

Chalk it up to experience, she raced at least.

Spoke sheared at the nipple, or nipple sheared?

Former is very unusual.

They seldom break at the nipple

Interesting… every broken spoke Ive seen for the past three years has been at the nipple. I’m genuinely curious about what might cause this failure mode.

Spoke breaking by the nipple = seized IME.

I’ve seen nipples shear, always aluminium IIRC, never seen that caused by a spoke that’s too short, and I’ve never seen a spoke overtightened inthis scenario without the wheel being out of true.

Not to bad assuming it required a new rim tape and sealant I s’ppose, specially if required quickly at a race event ?

Although assuming it wouldn’t have been detrimental to the wheel I would have removed the knackered spoke at replaced later.

Regardless of what work was done on top of the spoke replacement (which could be reasonably significant if it was the nipple end of the spoke that broke in the first place), a new spoke breaking in that length of time indicates something amiss.

I can’t see any reason you’d pay twice for work to be done badly and then to an acceptable standard. Of course the caveat would be if mid race the mechanic had said look it’ll cost you x as I need to do all these other things with it (replacing a spoke and removing and refitting tyre and rim tape, perhaps with new rim tape and sealant doesn’t sound OTT at £50 quid, and you have to true a wheel when you replace a spoke, it absolutely won’t be true if a spoke is missing!), and I don’t quite have the right bits so it might not last, but it’s better than not having a spoke, that’s a different matter.

I’ve seen nipples shear, always aluminium IIRC, never seen that caused by a spoke that’s too short, and I’ve never seen a spoke overtightened inthis scenario without the wheel being out of true.

I had a wheel with (alu) nips which kept shearing because the spokes were too short (because I believed manufacturer ERD). The threads weren’t engaging in the head, so it wasn’t adequately supported, and the heads got pulled off. Happened on about 8 before I gave up and rebuilt with proper length spokes. The tension was actually ok, but just too little engagement.

I’ve seen nipples shear, always aluminium IIRC, never seen that caused by a spoke that’s too short

Its pretty common

They seldom break at the nipple

I will also disagree with this!

IN general I think this is a good demonstration of why it’s useful to learn to repair and true wheels yourself. I think it’s fair enough that the mechanic charged for removing tape and presumably messing around with tires etc.

The fact it broke probably isn’t his fault but a sign the wheel needs some more detailed attention and perhaps retensioning.

Thanks for the replies. In answer to some of the questions.  The replacement spoke, as far as I could see, sheared at the nipple. The dodgy spoke wasn’t fitted mid race it was done at the end of the day and the mechanics didn’t squeeze the job in or go out of their way to do it, there’s a full team of them with what appears to be and is advertised as full support. They made no mention of it being a temporary fix, etc, just come back in an hour or so and it’ll be done. Im not sure they changed the sealant etc more so as the second mechanic who charged nine bucks also had the tyre off etc when he was fixing it – he was at a full on mtb repair shop at the bottom of a dh resort so I suspect he repairs a fair amount of wheels.

If the spoke had lasted I probably wouldn’t be moaning here about the cost (more so as its Mrs Kilos money and you kind of expect to get rinsed by “race” mechanics) but it’s more the don’t g.a.s attitude when called up on a shoddy job that’s annoying. Anyway Mrs Kilo is still “racing” and urgently leads the Female over 40, UK riders classification!

(I may have invented that classification and there may only be one female over 40’uk rider in the race)

He might not think it’s a shoddy job either, if neither mechanic has addressed the tensions of all spokes it’s more than likely the spoke will snap again at some point. But you’ll have to pay them to sit and do that, not just change a spoke.

Tbh big jam I kind of expect the job to be done properly in the first instance and them to tension the other spokes given they had the wheel for a few hours and charged a lot of the job.