Spoke Repair



kvl1027

New Member
Mar 28, 2005
66
0
0
Alright, well I just snapped my first spoke on this past Sunday! My riding buddy had to ride ahead to my house and get his car and come back to pick me up, thank god he can ride faster than I can....lol!

I called my wife to come get me because, like she always says before i ride on the road, " Call me if you need anything, and be careful, I worry about you when you ride on the road", needless to say after 5 calls without answer cause she was "In the Shower" we dicided to send my friend on hiw way.

Anyhow no to the real question, I just had my spoke fixed at the LBS, and it cost me $25 dollars, is this a reasonable price to have it fixed, considering My wheel never even made it to the truing stand? Granted i made sure it was true, and it is, I just think this is a little pricey for the work involved. Any opinions?
 
kvl1027 said:
Alright, well I just snapped my first spoke on this past Sunday! My riding buddy had to ride ahead to my house and get his car and come back to pick me up, thank god he can ride faster than I can....lol!

I called my wife to come get me because, like she always says before i ride on the road, " Call me if you need anything, and be careful, I worry about you when you ride on the road", needless to say after 5 calls without answer cause she was "In the Shower" we dicided to send my friend on hiw way.

Anyhow no to the real question, I just had my spoke fixed at the LBS, and it cost me $25 dollars, is this a reasonable price to have it fixed, considering My wheel never even made it to the truing stand? Granted i made sure it was true, and it is, I just think this is a little pricey for the work involved. Any opinions?
A spoke and nipple cost about $1 at LBS. Don't like their prices, do it yourself.
 
From my point of view, $5.00 would be a fair price for a "normal" (not a Zycral Ksyrium SL or something like it) spoke, $25.00 it's 5 times to much.
 
boudreaux said:
Don't like their prices, do it yourself.
There is no doubt, that you either work for or own a bike shop. If you dont work for or own a shop, you are just that kind of person who likes to make people feel stupid. If you would have actually read my post before your testosterone got in the way, you would have realized that I was simply asking if it was a fair price. The reason I asked was to see if it would be smart in the long run to invest in the proper tools to do it my self.
 
kvl1027 said:
There is no doubt, that you either work for or own a bike shop. If you dont work for or own a shop, you are just that kind of person who likes to make people feel stupid. If you would have actually read my post before your testosterone got in the way, you would have realized that I was simply asking if it was a fair price. The reason I asked was to see if it would be smart in the long run to invest in the proper tools to do it my self.

Mate, Bordy's response was ok. Nowhere in your original post did you mention anything about investing in tools etc etc. So you were charged $24 labor. Fair ? Depends in what part of the world you reside in. Call or enquire via web on other lbs maintenance prices.
 
My LBS would have charged me for the spoke and thrown in the labor for nothing. But, I go out of my way to give them business, including buying stuff there that I know I can get on the web for less. And, I know the owner by name. Most LBSs are small shops and not part of a nationwide chain. Get to know the owner and you'll be treated differently -- he/she is probably a cyclist.
 
kvl1027 said:
... Anyhow no to the real question, I just had my spoke fixed at the LBS, and it cost me $25 dollars, is this a reasonable price to have it fixed, considering My wheel never even made it to the truing stand? Granted i made sure it was true, and it is, I just think this is a little pricey for the work involved. Any opinions?
Before I bought an inexpensive set of tools I had to rely on my LBS to fix one spoke on the drive side. This was a couple of years ago and the prices were something like this ...

Spoke: $1.50
Removal of cassette: $13
Trueing rear wheel: $10
Removal of tire and putting it back on to replace nipple: $7

I was a bit miffed. Within a week I bought this el-cheapo tool kit from Nashbar
http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?...rand=&sku=3521&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=

Was the price you were charged fair? Well, the guys at the LBS do what they do to earn a living and pay their rent so I would say yes. I used to work in the computer field and I wouldn't want to work on somebody's computer for free.

By the way, once you have broken a first spoke you may have some others break due to the fatigue of the metal in the spokes if it's an older wheel.
 
It did not take me long to invest in a truing stand. You need to learn to do simple repairs like spoke replacement at home. My experience was one broken spoke led to another and another and another. I got tired of replacing spokes and bought a new more dependable set of wheels. After that I rebuilt the original wheels and got rid of the **** blade spokes. Now I have a spare set of wheels hanging in the workshop for emergency situations.


Keep riding and stay safe.

Charlie M.
Dallas, Tx
 
cmoore992002 said:
It did not take me long to invest in a truing stand. You need to learn to do simple repairs like spoke replacement at home. My experience was one broken spoke led to another and another and another. I got tired of replacing spokes and bought a new more dependable set of wheels. After that I rebuilt the original wheels and got rid of the **** blade spokes. Now I have a spare set of wheels hanging in the workshop for emergency situations.


Keep riding and stay safe.

Charlie M.
Dallas, Tx
Thanks that is probably what I am going to end up doing. I was afraid that if one spoke failed they would all start to enventually, and that would get pretty costly. Thanks for you help everyone!
 
I know this one's a bit old so maybe no-one's reading but I'd say chalk it up to experience and next time buy a new spoke and fit it yourself, then if needs be true the wheel on the bike using the brake blocks as guides. The only specialist tool you'll need is a spoke key.

If the wheel is badly out of true then you'll need a bit of patience but over time you'll get better at trueing wheels and then you'll know that you would even be able to fix stuff like this out on the road (spare spokes allowing!)

Also snapping one spoke isn't such a big deal unless you have a wheel with stupidly few spokes you should be able to true the wheel up with what's left so that you can at least limp back home. I don't normally bother replacing until I've lost about three (I am quite light though)

I think that yeah everyone's right the bike shop has to make some money, but hey if they'd fixed it for the cost of the spoke then maybe you'd go back again for something big, so I think everyone has been a touch harsh!

I guess people have different attitudes to business but I think that sometimes you don't lose out by giving away something for free - maybe next time you could ask if they'd show you how at least then they would know you were interested.