Riding with a broken spoke?

Lumen

During pre-ride fiddling I discovered that one of the spokes on my rear wheel has broken.

It's on the non-drive side. The wheel is a handbuilt Open Pro with 32 spokes, and doesn't look massively out of true.

How bad an idea is it to go out on a solo 100km ride with it like this? Is there likely to be some sort of cascade failure?

I have a spare wheel, but that would mean going computerless since I'm currently relying on the Powertap (the Garmin is broken).

DirkVoodoo

Seeing as it is a 32 spoke wheel, it's probably not THAT bad. Plus you aren't exactly a massive chap.

Personally I wouldn't, the resultant change in force on the surrounding spokes could mess the wheel up even more, possibly damaging the rim permanently too.

zzzzzzzz

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Seeing as it is a 32 spoke wheel, it's probably not THAT bad. Plus you aren't exactly a massive chap.

Personally I wouldn't, the resultant change in force on the surrounding spokes could mess the wheel up even more, possibly damaging the rim permanently too.

I'm pretty sure that one bad spoke will lead to another. The tension will be all over the shop, surely.

The computer is just optional here - change the wheel.

blorg

If you have a spare wheel use the spare wheel FFS. I would suggest getting a cheap Cateye or suchlike as a backup as this may not be the last time your Garmin fails to function What happened to your Garmin? My own one is broken as well, altimeter went kaput.

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

If you have a spare wheel use the spare wheel FFS. I would suggest getting a cheap Cateye or suchlike as a backup as this may not be the last time your Garmin fails to function What happened to your Garmin? My own one is broken as well, altimeter went kaput.

The Powertap was the backup for my Garmin. The Garmin leapt to it's death a couple of weeks ago, and I haven't had a chance to send it in yet. I foolishly believed that two computers was enough.

I've swapped the wheel, and will just have to ride like Jesus did.

PE FTW!

Raam

This is a great chance to experiment.

Lumen, please ride that wheel down Kippure and when you get out of hospital, let us know which physio is good for mending twisted spines

rottenhat

Yeah, probably would not have been a great idea to head out on it, but the fact that you could have is why the older-style of wheel still has a lot to offer - a broken spoke doesn't have to be a day-ender.

Lumen

rottenhat wrote: »

Yeah, probably would not have been a great idea to head out on it, but the fact that you could have is why the older-style of wheel still has a lot to offer - a broken spoke doesn't have to be a day-ender.

What happens with the few-spoked radial sort then?

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

What happens with the few-spoked radial sort then?

The rim has more of a tendency to go completely out of true I believe. Interestingly though I have never broken a spoke on low spoke count wheels, only on traditionally spoked ones

rottenhat

Usually it will go far enough out of true that the wheel won't clear the brakes or the chainstays, especially given the narrow clearances common on modern bikes.

Lumen

rottenhat wrote: »

Usually it will go far enough out of true that the wheel won't clear the brakes or the chainstays, especially given the narrow clearances common on modern bikes.

Sounds bad.

This is why I need Zipp 202s on my cross fixie. More clearance, see?