My brothers got an Ultegra 6800 wheelset. Had a slight mishap and the rear mech got ripped off, along with the mech hanger. Bike was fixed and there was no visible damage to the spoke. Halfway to Bristol, a spoke snaps and pulls the whole wheel out of true.

Anyway, the snapped spoke has damaged the flange. The burs been removed leaving this. He’s riding the Trabspy Road event in Spain; 1,200km race across the Pyrenees with 20,000m of climbing. The last thing he needs is a mechanical.

What’s the STW thoughts?

Personally if you are going to pedal 1200km with 20,000m of climbing I’d want to be on a wheel I was completely sure of.

Its hard to see but it looks like the spoke hole is partially cracked? Might just be the photo. But if it is stress risers etc, possible wear on spoke leading to snapping again etc.

However if one spoke snapping put the whole wheel out of true (depending how badly out of true) anyway then I think its time for a new wheel.

I would not trust that.

Looks like the chain went into the spoke seat and gouged it. Not sure I’d be keen to trust it on a big ride though. Perhaps retire it to local duties only?

It does look like you’ve got a couple of stress raisers there, however Shimano stuff tends to be pretty solid so it wouldn’t worry me too much, I don’t *think* it’s a particularly high stress on the outside there, so unlikely to cause an issue.

I’d ride with it, but there will be a small increased risk of a failure. I assume at some point in the ride spare parts would be available anyway? A lot could go wrong over that distance.

The wheel may or may not be ok. I’d personally buy a new wheel for the trip and use this for the turbo or local rides.
No point potentially screwing up a trip costing thousands for the sake of a couple of hundred.
Also, can he really trust it? Descending fast is all about confidence – manky back wheel ……… Just buy new one.

I wouldn’t trust it not to fail but I’d kind of expect it to fail in a way that took out that spoke rather than the hub, which isn’t such a disaster.

But is it worth the risk, with an event like that? I’d ride on it at home no bother.

Thanks all, will pass the link to my brother.

He’s riding the Trabspy Road event in Spain; 1,200km race across the Pyrenees with 20,000m of climbing. The last thing he needs is a mechanical.

What’s the STW thoughts?

My thoughts are that for that kind of event you go with a 32 (28 at a push) hole conventional hub using conventional j-bend spokes built well and not a lightweight factory wheelset with spokes that may or may not be easy to replace.

Regardless of whether that particular wheel will survive* or not I’d be wanting the safety net of additional spokes, and the ease of replacement of normal j-bend spokes if needed.

*I’d happily keep riding that round here locally while keeping an eye in it without any worries,but I wouldn’t trust it in a big event.

My thoughts are that for that kind of event you go with a 32 (28 at a push) hole conventional hub using conventional j-bend spokes built well

Also kind of agree with this.