I broke a spoke today and am trying to fix it right now and am having a few problems,
I was hoping to go on the ride tommorow morning so if anybody was willing to help tonight that would be awesome.
You’re not riding tomorrow bud. You need some specific tools to properly fix a wheel - best bringing it to a shop or the collective.
Did your spoke break or did the nipple itself fail?
You really need rim tape (improvised solutions just aren’t reliable) and a truing stand to get the wheel more than passably straight. Spoke wrenches are quite useful too, I wouldn’t want to fiddle with a spoke nipple using pliers or adjustable wrench - its bitchy.
I can lend you a truing stand and the wrenches but I’m not coming to campus with lugging gear until monday.
how did it happen adam?
I would suggest bringing the wheel at the collective (The Flat, in SSMU building room B02) as they have all the tools you should need to remove the cassette and true the wheel.
Rim tape is an absolute must, if you can’t get your hands on a good michelin plastic rim tape, do NOT buy these cheap rubber rim tape as they are really bad with road tires. I would suggest to use hockey tape (the textile based one you usually use on sticks) and do 2 turns or so. I’ve done it many times in the past and it works real well when you get the proper width for the tape.
As for the nipple in the rim… there isn’t really any special trick but to have lots of fun trying to get it out… shake the rim and have a lot of patience / time.
Thanks everybody,
Jason: The nipple failed, but then I had to bend the spoke to ride hope as gently as possible. The wheel came with spares.
JR: I was on flat, spinning, and then it sheared off at the nipple. I’m pretty sure its not supposed to fail that way.
Seb: I’m going to look up the collective. That way Jason won’t have to lend out his tools.
New question, What does rim tape do besides cover the nipples so they don’t pop the tube. I wasn’t going to use duct tape, but I didn’t think it was very important.
the rim tape as far as i know does exactly what you said, it covers the nipples/holes, and prevents you from flatting.
There are also some sticky textile based rim tape which works quite well.
About the bike collective:
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Location: B02 SSMU Building 3480 McTavish Street
when you pressurize a tube to over 100 psi it tries to expand into the spoke drill holes. Start loading the tire and the edge on the holes can easily cut the tube.
adam, you might want someone to actually inspect the rim, its possible the threading inside the rim is damaged instead of just the nipple failing.
I’ve heard of the hockey tape trick - I bet you could also do it with gun tape too (both are similar to the textile tape jonanthan was talking about) but plastic rim tape is cheap and easy to get and IMO less fiddly.
So I managed to break a spoke in two on my way back down-town yesterday. Drive-train side rear at the 2-cross point. I wasn’t even sprinting hard or even pounding it out at the track all that hard with the guys yesterday because of my ankle.
Not impressed. I know they are old wheels, but sheesh.