Busted spoke

Doing my daily commute this morning I hear a whirring noise coming from one of my wheels and I feel my bike was riding not as tight as it usually does. It is an Giant OCR-0 2006 with Shimano R550 wheels. On the bike I thought I had a slow puncture with a bearing issue.

I get to work and examine my wheels and then I find the busted spoke. Spoke hasn't broken itself, the screw holding it to the hub has snapped.

Now I am a large guy (105kg) and can hold a very nice speed down. What are my best options?
Fix the busted spoke?
Get the wheels relaced with stronger spokes?
Get new stronger wheels entirely?

Well I got the busted spoke replaced. Front wheel done 2500km's now, rear wheel 2000km's I just hope that my spokes last until May.... But knowing the reputation of these wheels I am betting that I will be busting a few more spokes as my weekly mileage is increasing from 55km's to 160km's.

The 550s are fairly notorious for this. I'd save for a new wheelset personally.

I'm saving for something else entirely... A trip to europe That is why I am hoping wheels last to May as I can buy the wheelset in UK and save on postage.
I'd be either going for the Mavic Aksium, or the Mavic Cosmos. LBS has the Askium like $500 and probikekit has them for $209 right now, with the cosmo's coming in at probikekit at $330.

I have the R550, abt 3500 km on them now. I am doing at least 180km on them weekly now, and started riding them when I was 105kg. I have also ridden them on some very rough roads.

The wheelset has been good so far. No spoke breakage.

I could be just lucky, but I think that factory wheels should be checked for a balanced spoke tension. I trued my wheels, and balanced the tension, and they have remained true since (1.5 yrs ago).

However, because the R550 spokes are bladed, its easy to twist the spokes while truing them. This twist in the spoke can unravel itself if not relieved, and cause uneven tension, and thereby increase the chances of spoke breakage. The same is true for regular spokes, but to a lesser extent.

So if you do get the spoke replaced, make sure that the mechanic checks spoke tension, and balances them up.

You might also want to consider a 32 spoked Open Pro/Ultegra wheelset. I am currently riding a set, and have 400km on them, and they weigh in at about 1.7kg according to the published weight of the parts. All up cost of the parts was $350, I sourced the spokes locally, and the other parts from chainreactioncycles.com.

The question is whether PBK would ship goods to a hotel address that's not linked to your credit card. I know that some mail-order places are very reluctant or outright refuses to ship to alternate locations.

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Morphed Bianchi Camaleonte IV 2006, Ridley Damocles 2006, Garmin, Mac

How do you tell if a regular round cross-section spoke is twisted?

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Morphed Bianchi Camaleonte IV 2006, Ridley Damocles 2006, Garmin, Mac

You can't. If you are tightening the nipple with a key, and with a little practice, you can feel the torsion disappear when you turn the key backwards a little at the end of the tightening process. You just have to hope that your wheelbuilder did this for each spoke.

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"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."

When you are tightening the spoke nipple you can feel the spoke twisting before the nipple actually turns, and as Arte pointed out, you then turn the key backwards to release the twist.

I would expect any decent wheelbuilder to be aware and at least perform this.

I posted about wheels for big heavy guys a while ago (http://www.cycling.net.au/t383258.html). Velocity Deep V wheelset was almost unanimous recommendation. They are made in Aus. Should be able to get a pair for $300-350 bucks. If you read my post it is interesting to note Mavics are only rated up to 100kg anyway. Deep Vs are known for being very strong rims. Weight does not seem to be much different from what you would be used to either.

Jezza

Velocity Aerohead is recommended for <80kg only, but I've found one very robust under my 88kg weight (unlike the spokes!!).

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"All that we see and seem is but a dream, within a dream..."