Oh No!

Riding along this morning, I hit a pothole. Not a very big or deep pothole; it was just one asphalt layer different from the rest of the road. Even so, I heard a metallic BANG! and immediately noticed that my front wheel looked out of true. I stopped and eyeballed it, but didn't see anything; and since I was still 4 miles from work, I got back on and kept riding. The wheel clearly wobbled as I rode. It was scary.

When I got to work, I checked all the spokes. As soon as I touched one -- barely even squeezed it -- the spoke jumped away from the wheel. The nipple's sheared in half! :eek: How is this possible?! I was going slowly, couldn't have been more than 12 or 13 mph, and the bike and I together can't weigh over 140 lbs. Gah!

Question: These are custom-made Mavic wheels that my LBS made for my new bike (which now has - oh my gosh, how can this be? - 1,191 miles on it). Would my wheels have a break-in period when this could happen? Would you ride on this wheel with a broken spoke?

Now I have no way of getting to the bike shop to fix it, and this is my commuting bike. I rely on having it every day to get to work. Is it likely my LBS could fix this tonight, or should I expect to be bikeless for an extended period of time?

they can re true a wheel speedily call them and let them know you're coming!

Yow! Let us know how it goes.

Since you're quite the road warrior :cool: you might want to look into these in case something like this happens again (which of course I hope it doesn't)

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/fiberfix.htm

Perhaps your LBS carries them.

Spare spokes and nipples and a spoke wrench might be a good thing to have in your "on-bike" repair kit. The repair doesn't have to be perfect, just enough to get you home or to the shop.

That Fiberfix thingy looks very cool! What a great idea!

Its trivial to replace a spoke. Just go to your LBS and they can either sell you the spoke and you can do it yourself, or they can probably do it while you wait.

Hmm, I looked at the Fiber Fix thing -- neat. What actually happened was that the nipple sheared off right at the wheel, leaving the spoke mostly intact. I don't think the Fiber Fix thing would help in this case, but I may start fix-it stuff for this in the future.

Do you ladies break spokes often? I've never had this happen before, and it was very surprising. I usually associate broken spokes with big guys really hitting potholes hard or something.

i just ordered a couple of these for Christmas presents! thanks for telling me about it.

Wow. Bummer about the wheel.
Do you have the Mavic MP3 protection plan on the wheel? (don't know if it applies to custom built wheels, however) I got a 3-year plan with my wheels that (according to the LBS guy) would fix or replace the wheel even if damaged through a pothole or parallel grate accident. I don't recall the specifics of the program, but I'm sure the Mavic site has some info.
Also..since it's your front wheel, running the chain on a different cassette wouldn't be an issue...so would your LBS be able to loan you a wheel if it takes a while to repair yours? Might be worth asking.
I can't say I've broken more than one spoke in the past 10 years. I did wreck the rim of my rear wheel on my old Seven (a Shimano Ultegra wheel) in a parallel grate. That was a pain.

sounds like a defective nipple. Have never seen a nipple fail. Normal failure I see is that the spoke usually breaks right where it goes into the nipple or if installed incorrectly on the hub, it can sheer on the right angle turn into the hub.

Could the LBS have put way too much tension into all the spokes? Have them measure the tension on rest of the spokes. If its too tight, you may need to replace all the nipples. And if not corrected, you can split the flanges on the hub where the spoke goes into the hub failed hub photo

You may want to keep a cheap spare bike or set of wheels for emergency.

Do you have a ride to the LBS? I don't think you should ride with a way out of aligned wheel. You can potentially tweak the rims so it becomes ever so slightly pretzled.

Highly recommend that you get a ride to your LBS. Well I'm glad that you didn't get hurt. Bikes can be replaced/fixed.

ride safe,
Smilingcat

Did you get your wheel fixed?

Yep! I rode very carefully to the bike shop and got there just fine. They took a look and determined that, indeed, the nipple and not the spoke had failed. The mechanic checked the other spokes, and they seemed fine, so he replaced the nipple and sent me on my way with no charge. I love my LBS.

That's most excellent. I'm glad it all worked out okay.

Veronica

Yay! I'm glad it worked out well!

Perhaps time to think about asking Santa for back up wheels? Just a thought, and not an extravagance for someone who uses her bike as much as you do!

CA

I would definitely like back-up wheels. It'd also be nice to be able to switch back and forth between studded tires and regular tires at the drop of a hat. And since they're custom I know the LBS wouldn't have a loaner pair if I did have a real tacoed-wheel type emergency. It's a really good idea. But right now everything I have, and all I asked Santa for, is an Xtracycle conversion for my old mountain bike. This means I can't even look at the stuff on TE, not even the stuff on sale. "Xtracycle!" I keep reminding myself.

Studded tires. Wow. You are hard core. :cool:

This happened AGAIN, same wheel, different spoke. The spoke nipple failed. I didn't even hit any noteworthy bumps! Only the exciting part is now it's snowy and icy here, and I'm riding on that with a wobbling front wheel. :eek:

I need some expert advice here: Should I have the LBS replace all the spoke nipples? Or replace the whole wheel? (*Shudder*) Two in a week, when I went for 12,000 miles before without any issues, seems to suggest there's something inherently off about the wheel. :(