Hi,

I am on a family holiday and packed my bike to try to sneak off for some brief rides on Dartmoor.

I was getting it out of the car when I noticed two spokes on the rear wheel have sheared through. The wheels are 32 spokes on Shimano hubs and WTB rims and were supplied with the bike (Marin Rocky Ridge) which is about four years old and has been fairly well used.

Would it be ok to use the bike (the remaining spokes seem ok) or is two failed spokes too much? – I do not really have time to get to a bike shop before the end of the holiday.

Thanks

does the wheel still feel stiff? Still running true? Spokes missing near each other or not?

If all above positive, i’d be inclined to risk it, allbeit with the knowledge in the back of your mind whilst riding. I think wheels tend to fail non-catastrophically as a general rule, although there are always exceptions…

take a phone with you, and keep the wheel on the ground and you should be ok…

Cheers,

The rest of the spokes seem taut but the sheared ones are only about five apart.

I might do some shortish rides and see what happens.

If 2 have gone, I would expect more to go, but hopefully in a 1 at a time kinda of way.

I wouldn’t want to tell you to ride in case you have a crash as a result, but hopefully it’ll be ok for a bit of riding.

Definitely take extra precautions though should (and I really hope it doesn’t) anything go wrong.

I’ve been running my hardtail for about 6 months with a spoke missing from the rear – wheel is true and stiff, I’m lazy
I’m sure it’ll be fine for a week or so.

I’ve been missing two spokes in a 721 for about three years now. I’ll get round to replacing them eventually…

highly unlikely to cause a prob if the rest of the wheel is well constructed, but be aware as those around them will be loaded more now. Does depend on what caused the spokes to fail in the first place though!

.

I went the last 2 days in Spain without 2 spokes, you’ll be fine on dartmoor.

Time for a new wheel though as IME wheels last about 2 years hard use before the rim looses its stiffness and spokes start to fatigue and snap. Those 2 in Spain were preceeded by 3 going in 3 rides a few weeks before, and anothers gone since then, run out of spare spokes now so the next one to go it’s rebuild time.

You could pick up a shimano hub and a basic rim build off CRC for well under £40 so it’s daft running them longer than nececary.

I only have 24 spokes in my wheels and they seem to work ok…