Oh No!

[kfergos]

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! 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?

[Biciclista]

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

[jobob]

Yow! Let us know how it goes.

Since you're quite the road warrior 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.

[Becky]

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!

[Triskeliongirl]

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.

[kfergos]

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.