Broken spokes – repair or rebuild?

Not the best bike performance I’ve had on holiday!

Broke a spoke at the end of today. No drama as it was on the decent to the hotel and its the last day. Limped back.

It’s the second one I’ve broken. Same scenario. It’s the disc side of a front wheel. Broken at the start of the threads. Happened under heavy braking. I’m not heavy, 70kg. Don’t normally break things like wheels.

Expensive Newman hub and 40mm carbon rim. Straight pull spokes.

Two spokes going makes me nervous this will happen again and perhaps leave stranded on a long ride.

Am I worried about nothing and should I just get it replaced or should I get the wheel rebuilt? I’m assuming it isn’t a rim/hub problem because of the failure location. Replacing the wheel isn’t really an option as I need to fix my brakes 😉

Are you able to retension and true the wheel?

If so, then I’d replace the spoke, if not then it would be a full rebuild for me.

I’d keep replacing the spokes, I’ve broken spokes before but it’s never left me stranded, the other spokes have always been enough to keep the rim true enough to keep spinning. In fact, I’ve been lazy enough to ignore one spoke snapping and waited until another went, and then waited a bit longer before fixing, so far it’s been fine

What spokes? If you know they’re something decent e.g. Sapim or DT I would be concerned that I’d broken two, but if they were those cheaper ones that come on some wheelsets (Pillar?) I’d maybe put it down to cheap spokes and just replace with better ones! The stock wheels on my £500 Charge Singlespeed have broken at least two spokes and I’ve just replaced each time.

Having said that, I did randomly break a double butted Sapim spoke on my rear wheel and just de-tensioned wheel, replaced broken spoke and re-tensioned. Has been all good since.

I guess they are expensive given the wheels.

There aren’t a lot of spokes so one going would be ok on the flat. Two going would be a taxi.

When a spoke snaps the ones on either side take up all the extra tension, so are weakened.

If you replace the broken ones then get some spares as sooner or later you will need them (I did on my road bike & taped some spares to the frame – one day I needed one to get home.

If it’s a race bike, or 100% reliability is vital then rebuild the wheel with all new spokes, or replace the wheel.

If you replace the broken ones then get some spares as sooner or later you will need them (I did on my road bike & taped some spares to the frame – one day I needed one to get home

I’ve only ever had J bend spokes, are straight pull easier to replace at the roadside? Or is there a trick with J bends that I’m missing! To be fair tho, I have centre lock rotors which can’t be removed with your typical multi-tool

So the questions are always did anything in particular cause it, how old it is, and how often it happens- basically forks fatigue in a set so if they’re just fatiguing out and breaking under normal use one might be a defect or unseen damage, but 2 is becoming suspicious and 3 or 4 is a bad sign. TBH I’m not sure the actual spoke used is that important these days, as long as it’s a standard spoke desogn anyway… it doesn’t seem likely they’ve used absolute crap and all decent spokes are, well, decent. Especially straightpulls, not because straightpulls are better but just because they’re still nichier, there’s few crap straightpull options out there.

Also a little bit about how many spokes do you have- because 32 and even 28h usually have a bunch of redundancy in them, I’ve done whole weeks of hard holiday riding with a couple of broken spokes and just not thought about it. But once you get down into lower spoke counts, it’s proportionally worse, partly because there’s just obviously less remaining spokes but also because you get bigger gaps between them. Usually I just shrug and carry on but if it was a 24h that’s instantly a bit dicier.

Repeated sudden spoke failure under braking?

I’d be getting it fully rebuilt with fresh DT or Sapim spokes.

I’d always repair if it was one or two.

I’ve snapped on on a 20 spole road rim. It was a very flexy worrying 10 miles home.

Spare spokes can live in the seat tube/ seat post taped up to prevent rattling unless you have a dropper.

My MTB wheels are 28 or 32 spoke.the 32 are fine for the rest of the ride/ rest of the week.

Low spoke count. I’d have to actually count but I think 20! 1 was dubious. Two would be unrideable.

Not like my 32h commuter wheels where I can carry on as normal with a broken spoke until I find some time.

I’ll get a quote for a rebuild. Cost Vs piece of mind.

I’ve found that once two or more have needed replacing in close succession,  then it becomes an ongoing saga. Best to respoke the whole wheel.

I guess they are expensive given the wheels.

Errrr, not guaranteed. I’ve had to rebuild expensive wheels with better spokes. (No name bladed things to CX Rays on a 2k wheelset)

In your case they may also have fitted overly light spokes to hit a weight target, or over tensioned (Low spoke counts sort of encourage this).

On rhe naff stock cast iron wheels that came on my road bike, all was fine for about 2 years… then pop went spoke after spoke after spoke, usually 1 st a time ever 2 or 3 rides (I’m absolutely NOT 70kg. Not unless you chop both my legs and a head off, anyway).

Each time I’d replace the spoke, retention and true.

After maybe 10 or 12 spokes breaking at different points on the wheel (out of 28 total) it all settled down and didn’t have a peep of a problem for several years after that (until the rim was worn out (rim brakes)  and scrap.

I had a wheel that wouldn’t stop snapping spokes.

One went so I had it replaced, retensioned & so I bought some spares. Then went to the Alps and broke 5 more, one each day which I replaced and did my best to get the tension right.

When I got home the wheel builder rebuilt it for me with fresh spokes, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary and it’s been perfect ever since.

So in my very limited experience, if I’ve broken more than one I’d get it rebuilt.

I just replace spokes as the break