It's not hard to replace one spoke if you can find a replacement of same type and length. If you have both pieces, I'd take the broken one to a shop and get them to replace it with an identical one, and buy a suitable spoke wrench at the same time. Put a dab of grease on the threads, insert it, tighten it, then use the brake pads or your thumbnail to get the tension so that the rim is even side to side. If you screw it up, you can always go back, and it's very useful to know how to do minor truing and tensioning. I built my first and only wheel (admittedly, a fixed gear wheel with no dish) with no truing stand or tensioning meter, and I've re-dished many a wheel, having taught myself.
General spoke nipple tip: if spoke nipples bind, you can always turn them at least a bit further with Vise Grips (tm). (Please, y'all, don't be *too* earnest!) (Tho' I have used Vise Grips liberally on beaters' wheelsets.) (And you can play spoke 'n' tube roulette: don't remove the tire or inflated tube when you replace a spoke or redish a wheel; just hope that you don't drive any spoke far enough into the tube to pop it.) (Yes, that's what I do on beater wheels.) On Mon, Jun 21, 2010 at 8:13 AM, jandrews_nyc <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi. > After some slightly rough riding and shifting last night, I broke a > spoke on > my Hillborne. It's on the rear wheel, drive side. I've never broken > a spoke, and am wondering > if this is something I can attend to myself or should I take it to a > shop? Does a wheel need to be re-trued after a broken spoke? I don't > have a truing stand, so that may make my decision for me. Naturally, > I'd like to fix it myself unless you all advise against it. Seems like > a mighty useful skill to have. > Thanks! > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "RBW Owners Bunch" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<rbw-owners-bunch%[email protected]> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en. > > -- Patrick Moore Albuquerque, NM For professional resumes, contact Patrick Moore, ACRW at [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
