Spoke Ripped From Rim, What To Do?

DaveyDave

About two months ago my chain fell between my wheel and gears and one of the spokes had been completely ripped from the rim leaving a nice big hole. I'm on a super tight budget so I was just wondering what my options were. I can't find any detailed information on the rim, it's a Wilkinson Mach1 EXE that came factory fit on my 2011 Lapierre Tecnic 300 so I'm thinking just buy whatever the cheapest 32h rim is and get that fit but I remember seeing someone recommend to just buy a new wheel but that looks to be quite expensive although I don't know how much rebuilding the wheel will cost either.

Can the current spokes be used? If I remember correctly CSS charged €7 per spoke, I don't know how much Wheelworx would be charging but if it's something similar it will add up. At the very least I'll need two new nipples as another spoke seems to have a broken nipple so is loose from the rim. It's not near the ripped one but I'm not sure if that's a result of the already broken one or that massive curb I dropped down a few weeks back.

Maybe I'm over thinking this, I just keep thinking about the cost, I have a rim and tape picked out from CRC for €25. I'd rather pick it myself as the last time I had a bike shop replace something I got a generic Shimano hub for the same cost as a Deore one and was also told a new fork would be €150 when I picked up a RockShox XC30 for €120, when you're broke like me you don't want to pay extra for inferior parts.

I've been cycling around on this wheel for two months now and the only reason I'm forking out for it is because I'd like to start mountain biking again since I'm recently unemployed. I had a quick look on CRC and Wiggle for wheels but there was nothing for 9 speed with a Centerlock hub, not under €100 anyway.

delynet

I had a similar problem a while back and I ended up buying a new set of wheels. Check the advert section, there was a guy selling a set of Shimano R510 wheels for €70 but these may be sold now. I picked up a similar set in the Rose bikes sale before Christmas for €56 so bargains to pop up

TychoCaine

delynet wrote: »

I had a similar problem a while back and I ended up buying a new set of wheels. Check the advert section, there was a guy selling a set of Shimano R510 wheels for €70 but these may be sold now. I picked up a similar set in the Rose bikes sale before Christmas for €56 so bargains to pop up

+1

You're looking at €30+ just in labour to build a wheel and I don't think builders like using 2nd hand spokes, so you've got to buy them also. Unless you can build the wheel yourself I'd pick one up cheap (from €15 up) on adverts/donedeal.

cdaly_

If you're interested in learning how, spend EUR10 on Roger Musson's Wheelbuilding book, make a stand and build it yourself. You could then bring the finished wheel to a bike shop and ask them to check it over / do the final trueing...

DaveyDave

I'm tempted to do it myself and get the bike shop to fix it up if need be. It might not be as cheap as sourcing a second hand wheel but I want to be able to fix my own bike and this is exactly how I've dealt with things in the past. Even if I have to take it to the bike shop in the end, I'd rather do most of the work myself.

What's the best way to go about doing this, ordering the rim and checking the depth then seeing what size spokes I need seems to be the best bet?

browsing

Hi @DaveyDave,

I was in a similar situation to yourself a while ago. I had two wheels, one with the rim like yours and the other where the freehub went.
€7 seems extraordinarily expensive for a spoke if it's just a simple "J turn" standard one. I've picked them up at bike shops for 50c-€1 for spoke and nipple.

Before you buy a rim, check it's ERD in order to be certain that the existing spokes will fit just fine. Then, when you have the parts, check out a good source to build one like @cdaly_ suggested. I personally went on to sheldonbrown.com and he has an excellent article explaining ERD and also how to build a wheel from scratch.

Using this I built a wheel and I did about 2k km if i remember and it's still straight. It may have been beginner's luck but I think you will be surprised how attainable it is if you put the effort in. It took me two 4-5 hour blocks to do (including lacing incorrectly first and then relacing!) and make sure I was doing it correctly but it's very satisfying when you're done.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on!

SomeFool

:pac: