[jackcf]

Hey people, I need some advice on a wheel issue I’m having at the moment. 

I recently broke a spoke, the nipple snapped and then the spoke got all bent as I slowed down to stop. As it was on the drive side of the rear wheel, I took it to one of my local bike shops to get it replaced and the wheel re-trued. This cost me £25 (seems a bit steep? I’m not sure, this is besides the point though).

I then took it back to the bike shop a few rides later, as I had noticed about half of my rear spokes were loose as f*ck. The wheel was still pretty true, but the bike shop said they shouldn’t be loose like that and willingly sorted it out, or so I thought…

Since then I have been on one 45km ride and today when I went to get my bike out of the basement, one of my spokes (rear wheel, non drive side) was dangling around as the nipple had broken at the rim again. Now this must have happened while the bike was sat in the basement, as I definitely would have noticed had it happended while I was out – seems weird, could this be possible?

I am fully ready to accept this as just bad luck 🙁 but I do kind of feel that maybe the bike mechanic didn’t do such a good job either time, and this is what has caused it to break.

Should this be happening so soon after the wheel being looked at? Should I question the quality of the work done, or just accept that it was bad luck, move on and pay to get it fixed again?

Cheers for any advice.

 

Edit: On closer inspection, the spoke has snapped as well, not just the nipple.

Topic

[Dnnnnnn]

adamthekiwi wrote:

Hi jackcf – I’d like to add to what DaSy has said – it sounds like your bike shop has definitely gone the extra mile. I’d also add this as general advice – teach yourself to build and true wheels. There are lots of good books around – I’d recommend “The Bicycle Wheel” by Jobst Brandt – and it is a task that is *much* easier than most folk think. It’s also incredibly rewarding (although, granted, time-consuming) to build your own set of wheels. You will never get a stronger, truer set of wheels than the ones you build yourself…

Strongly agree with all the above apart from the last sentence! 

[adamthekiwi]

Hi jackcf – I’d like to add

Hi jackcf – I’d like to add to what DaSy has said – it sounds like your bike shop has definitely gone the extra mile. I’d also add this as general advice – teach yourself to build and true wheels. There are lots of good books around – I’d recommend “The Bicycle Wheel” by Jobst Brandt – and it is a task that is *much* easier than most folk think. It’s also incredibly rewarding (although, granted, time-consuming) to build your own set of wheels. You will never get a stronger, truer set of wheels than the ones you build yourself…

[Anonymous]

PS, Your bike shop sound like

PS, Your bike shop sound like they went the extra mile for you, so props to them. 

[Anonymous]

I think with all new nipples,

I think with all new nipples, it should hold pretty well. The main issue is using crap aluminium nipples (in a marketing attempt to reduce the advertised weight), especially when holding the high tensions required with that spoke configuration. Decent brass nipples not only cope with the high spoke tension, but allow you to wind them up tight without the fear of rounding them out and even more so after they have been on for a while.

 

Good luck with the wheel.

[jackcf]

LBS have put complete set of

LBS have put complete set of new nipples on rear wheel as well as rebuilt it from the bottom up. They are confident it will be fine now, but I guess we’ll see. This thread has made me think otherwise.

I have put an order in for the fulcrums and will keep them as backup, for if (when) mine go again. I just didn’t like the spoke configeration on the zondas, otherwise they’d be the ones.

Thanks for advice people. I’ll let you know how long the rebuild last for!

[srchar]

New factory wheelset for a

New factory wheelset for a couple of hundred quid? Zondas.

Can’t stretch to Zondas? Racing 5 LG.

Money’s too tight to mention? Shimano RS10.

[OR_biker]

I think you’ll be happy with

I think you’ll be happy with the Fulcrum’s.  I have the Racing 5 LG CX version (which of course aren’t as nice as the 3’s), and have been fairly impressed so far after ~1,800 miles.  I’m about 92kg, and was worried with them having such a low spoke count (20 back, 16 front), but they’ve held up wonderfully.  Only had to tighten one spoke, and that was due to me not seeing a shallow pothole soon enough to unload the back wheel, and I hit it at just the right point in the rotation to allow the spoke to untwist a bit and loosen (non-DS, radially-spoked, straight-pull). 

The new-ish “LG” Fulcrum’s are nice because they’re a bit wider (23mm).  It may just be a mental thing but I did notice a bit more comfort when coming from 19mm-wide wheels.  At my weight I have to keep the PSI pretty high, but just switching wheels and keeping the same tires initially it felt like a smoother ride over certain roads I commute on.

[Anonymous]

The Fulcrums are nice wheels,

The Fulcrums are nice wheels, and a higher end wheel than the Aksium. I just tend to recommend the Aksium for a good cheap replacement for low spec OEM wheels if someone doesn’t want to spend too much.

I also like the Campag Zondas for the sort of money you are looking to spend, they have proved to be tough, fairly quick and similar weight to the Fulcrum 3. They look pretty good on most bikes too!

 

[Sniffer]

I bought a bike with Aksiums.

I bought a bike with Aksiums.  Eventually cracked the rim and replaced them with Fulcrum 3s, but they are dependable wheels.  Don’t know if I was faster, but the Fulcrum 3s felt better and I lost the brake rub I would get sometimes when out the saddle.  There are some good deals about.

If you have the money I would go Fulcrum 3s in your position.

[StraelGuy]

Aksiums ARE great but they

Aksiums ARE great but they are heavy*. Don’t know about the Fulcrums quality/reliability etc but they’ll be about 3-400 grams lighter per pair.

*I have a set on my winter bike and they’re fab.

[jackcf]

Cheers for the advice DaSy, I

Cheers for the advice DaSy, I’ve been looking at getting some Fulcrum Racing 3, which are at the top end of my budget of about £300. Would you say the Aksiums would be a close match to the fulcrums?

I have also been told that these Pave 28 Ultra are worth a look too.

[Anonymous]

If you are going to have to

If you are going to have to pay for the cost of replacing the DS spokes, new nipples and rebuild cost, I would agree with the comments above and write the wheels off and use that money towards a set of Aksiums (I know I keep on about Aksiums, but they are a very good wheel for the money, we rarely had any issues with them).

The Giant wheel is not a good wheel even when rebuilt in a way that stops it falling apart, it’s a cheap hub and rim, not light or particularly aero,  very much built to a cost, a low one at that.

Just a note to say, I no longer run a bike shop, but did for years and ran my own repair workshop for a few more. It’s not a great way to make money, but it  was good fun and something I was good at.

[racingcondor]

It’s not uncommon for a spoke
It’s not uncommon for a spoke breaking to lead to a bit if a chain reaction as the spokes either side are suddenly overloaded. Especially true of poorly built or oddly laced wheels (did I read radial drive side?).

Good to hear a shop chip in with background knowledge of these wheels being at risk of it too.

Starting again with new spokes and a careful builder might fix it but there’s no guarantee if it’s the lacing and how you ride them that’s just not working.

[jackcf]

DaSy wrote:

I only just noticed you linked to the spec further up, and they are very similar to the wheels we used to have all the issues with. We used to rebuild those with decent brass nipples and 2 cross all-round, due to finding that once one spoke broke (which often happened quite quickly from new), you would be forever replacing spokes, even if, as we did, you detensioned the whole wheel, replaced the offending spoke and retensioned.

All of this was happening within warranty, and we just sucked up the cost to keep the customer happy!

I would definitely recommend replacing with a set of Aksiums or the like for peace of mind.

Yes they are exactly as you’ve described.

The shop rang this morning saying they were going to completely reubuild the wheel, so is it worth me requesting they do it as you’ve said?

Unfortunately Giants warranty is not transferable and this bike is second hand, so there is no way of me getting a freebie.

[Anonymous]

I only just noticed you

I only just noticed you linked to the spec further up, and they are very similar to the wheels we used to have all the issues with. We used to rebuild those with decent brass nipples and 2 cross all-round, due to finding that once one spoke broke (which often happened quite quickly from new), you would be forever replacing spokes, even if, as we did, you detensioned the whole wheel, replaced the offending spoke and retensioned.

All of this was happening within warranty, and we just sucked up the cost to keep the customer happy!

I would definitely recommend replacing with a set of Aksiums or the like for peace of mind.

[Author]

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