lost a spoke, how long have I got?

souter

Noticed a thump,thump coming from the rear wheel today. Didn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to tie it to breaking a spoke on the same wheel at the weekend.
What's the chances of catastrophic failure with this wheel now?
32 (31 now) spoke with Velocity mid V rim, built by Cultured in Temple bar who I'll get to fix it when I track them down. My only spare has a fairly shot axle which is liable to seize up.

Gavin

You'll get maybe 40k or so out of it, at a guess, but more spokes will start to go and it will cascade. You also risk warping the rim so far out of true it won't be retrievable. I did it to one of my wheels when I was in the same boat.

Lumen

I wouldn't worry too much about it on a traditional build with normal stainless spokes, just check the remaining spokes periodically until you get it fixed and stay away from fast descents. There may be a gradual cascade effect, but it's likely that the wheel will become unusable through brake/frame rub before it collapses.

I'm guessing.

edit: what he said ^^

Beasty

The sooner the better, although I lost one after about 50k of the WW200 last year, and got round without further incident

souter

Cheers.
I should qualify "catastrophic failure": for my 5 mile commute it would constitute having to walk the bike for a couple miles and work late a few evenings to compensate. Will get it fixed as time allows.

blorg

I'd try to get it fixed sooner than later. The longer you leave it the more potentially expensive it could get.