New wheel or rebuild?

Effects

I had a slight buckle in my front wheel and then I lost a spoke. I brought it to a bike shop in Rathmines for a new spoke and to straighten it. 2km after putting it back on the bike I had lost 5 spokes and a load more were loose. Bike shop said its not their fault and the wheel is old (2007 giant fcr 2.5). They suggest buying a new wheel now. I'm a bit annoyed they didn't suggest this at first instead of wasting €20 and then being told to give them another €55 for a wheel. They said the wheel is the same but it looks like a pretty standard crap wheel to me. Am I better off just buying a new wheel or getting the old one rebuilt? Can I do it myself? The past three places I've brought bikes for repairs have done bad job so I've little faith in bike shops. Or should I go back to the shop and get them to fix it again and only pay them if it's done properly this time?

Effects

So any thoughts?

davgtrek

I'd buy a new wheel. lots of bargains out there.
buy a decent one and they're usually reliable and not much hassle unless your putting up big miles.

Unregistered.

Buy a new bike OP.

mp31

The real question you need to ask yourself is "How much money am I prepared to spend on this problem"
If the answer is 'lots' then you've made the task easy and relatively stress free by going online and buying a new set of wheels. What to choose is the hard part but there are plenty of threads here to help you decide.
If the answer is 'as little as possible' then the task is a lot more hassle and starts with going back to the shop to complain to the manager.

BTW I think the shop is shirking their responsibilities by saying it's not their fault when as part of the trueing process they would have had to tighten some/all of the spokes and also check the tension of them all. Not doing this properly would result in loose spokes IMO.

Darkglasses

I'd be pretty disappointed in the shop, I'd buy the new wheel somewhere else.

It wasn't think bike by any chance?

gman2k

They did a really bad job in repairing the wheel if it failed as you say within 2km.

Holyboy

If it's a road bike maybe bite the bullet and shell out for a new wheel(s) you can get a set of Shimano R501s from Rose bikes for 80euro plus shipping which is stupidly cheap and they are great entry level wheels. I don't know how much the shop in question is to blame as wheels are very temperamental and each one is different no matter what it consists of, but saying that if they had checked the spokes by hand I'm pretty sure they would have broken when they were truing it rather than on the road but either way it sounds like you need a new wheel!

Effects

Thanks for the replies. I don't want to have to spend a fortune on the problem but I am annoyed with their poor service. It was think bike but I thought it might be against regs to mention them. The spokes themselves didn't seem to break, just come loose from the nut. I'll check again this evening though.

Effects

Holyboy wrote: »

If it's a road bike maybe bite the bullet and shell out for a new wheel(s) you can get a set of Shimano R501s from Rose bikes for 80euro plus shipping which is stupidly cheap and they are great entry level wheels.

I thought you meant for just one but for a set that seems pretty good. Then I'll just keep the rear wheel for when I need it.
Really must learn to do all my own maintenance, seems like its the best way to get the work done properly.

mirv

To be honest, I think your wheel was trashed before you brought it to a shop. You shouldn't be riding around on any sort of buckle without taking a spoke key to a wheel unless you're just trying to make it home.

A shop is most likely going to replace the single spoke and bring it up to tension to bring it back into true. It's more likely that the other spokes were about to break regardless, especially seeing as it happened within 2km unless they were especially incompetent.

It's hard for them to know how hard/softly you've ridden your wheel and how much damage you've caused before you brought it in. If they told you to replace it immediately you might have accused them of trying to rip you off instead of replacing a single spoke.

TychoCaine

Holyboy wrote: »

If it's a road bike maybe bite the bullet and shell out for a new wheel(s) you can get a set of Shimano R501s from Rose bikes for 80euro plus shipping which is stupidly cheap and they are great entry level wheels. I don't know how much the shop in question is to blame as wheels are very temperamental and each one is different no matter what it consists of, but saying that if they had checked the spokes by hand I'm pretty sure they would have broken when they were truing it rather than on the road but either way it sounds like you need a new wheel!

+1 for the Shimano r501 wheels. By all rights I have no business being on a road bike. I'm too big but hate riding MTBs. I bought a bike with r501s assuming I'd break them and be swapping them for Mavic Aksiums within weeks, but they're still perfect after 6 months.

Gary

Holyboy

Effects wrote: »

I thought you meant for just one but for a set that seems pretty good. Then I'll just keep the rear wheel for when I need it.
Really must learn to do all my own maintenance, seems like its the best way to get the work done properly.

Or you could just try to find a shop in the Dublin 8 area that has a good mechanic :pac:

So did the spokes actually break or did the nipples come lose?

Holyboy

I should say I don't think it was completely the shops/mechanics fault but maybe the offer of some kind of discount on a new wheel would have been a nice good will gesture, Think Bike have a good reputation and I usually only hear good things about them.

Effects

It was just the nipples that came loose. I don't think any of them actually broke. When I say lost I mean they came loose but were still attached to the hub.
I asked at the time if I needed a new wheel but they said no.
Think I'll just get a new wheel and start doing my own work on the bike. Definitely wouldnt buy the wheel from think bike anyway. Thanks for all the advice.

Holyboy

TBH that's very unusual but it can happen, some self wicking threadloc could help after truing and tensioning but lets be fair you have a great excuse to get some new wheels, BUT I would say even the R501s need to be tensioned a bit before use especially the front as it is radial spoked!

Effects

Is that something I can figure out how to do myself or do I need to take the wheel somewhere after I get it?