Am I right to be annoyed that I have two broken spokes after having a reputable shop fix 1 broken spoke a few days ago?
I’m out doing a tour, tomorrow is the last big day - 45ish miles. The rear end felt a little squidgey coming out of the woods this evening. I figured I was low on air but No! Two new broke spokes (rear wheel, drive side, broke off in the J bend, holes are right next to each other).
I got to practice using a fiber fix - and truth be told we aren’t really doing anything rough, so I imagine things will be fine. But… Dang, I wish the shop would have told me the tension was off and I was going to break more - I would have brought another fiber fix!
Btw: fiber fix is a neat little hack. But a PITA to install on the drive side. What finally worked for me was: make a ‘clean’ end by cutting the end I messed up trying the first time. Then, reenforcing the end with super glue and some tape (so the end would hold together while forcing it through the hub hole). A bright light and a tiny Leatherman squirt were required.
Forgive me if I seem naieve, I’m not a hardcore ‘offroad’ biker but I like to think I go through some questionable forest paths and outright rough it a bit following little paths without proper consideration, trying to take the odd ‘shortcut’ … I have ended up barrelling through blackberry-overgrown paths and other narrow sections, even taking some strong branches into my wheels before I could react to the terrain, but I’ve never broken a spoke, ever. What the heck are you doing?! :) Sounds fun!
I am riding a railroad grade gravel trail (on Vancouver Island). I’m carrying a couple days worth of gear in a frame bag, handle bar bag, and a backpack (pretty light weight stuff, we are credit card touring). Huge, overkill tires at maybe 30 psi. And to be fair, I did hop up a couple curbs…
So, nothing hard core at all. I’ve done over 10,000 miles on this bike, including some truley rough stuff. The broken spokes only started a few days ago on a wheel that is just a year old or so.
Who built the wheel and who fixed the spokes? If it’s the same shop, yes, I’d be mad because obviously they weren’t tensioned properly. However, if the second shop (the one that replaced the bad spoke) was different, they probably didn’t bother checking unless you specifically asked them to. Sometimes spokes just break from impact from rocks or something. So whether you get mad at the second shop depends on what information you gave them and what questions they asked.
Same shop, new owners. I go there specifically because of the wheel building, and assumed I didn’t need to tell them to check the rest.
Lesson learned I guess, but damn.
