BROKEN SPOKES?

A post by @harryS on another thread, on this topic. I am putting a screenshot of his post here--it contains advice about preventing broken spokes on a new bike.
https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/ride1up-e-bikes.26065/
Screen Shot 2018-11-23 at 9.05.16 AM.png
 
steve mercier said:
BROKEN SPOKES ; informal survey. If you have broken any spokes on your ebike let me know ; I have broken 3 spokes on the rear wheel of my rear hub type 500 watt bike. I broke one over a speed bump and one over a curb . The first one broke seemingly randomly. Each time I had the spoke replaced and the wheel tuned. Now I dont ride that bike much anymore. Anybody else with a rear hub bike that has broken spokes?
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Broken spokes on a hub motor bikes are often caused by poor wheel building. The dish offset is different for each hub motor.
We have had some Stromer & BH E-bikes with hub motors that are going strong after 6 or 7 thousand miles and we have had mid motor bikes with broken spokes within the first 200 miles. However, a strong wheel, irrespective of the drive system, should last several thousand miles.
 
Mr. Coffee said:
If you are riding on a well-made wheel using modern steel spokes and aren't riding down flights of stairs every day breaking a spoke should be vanishingly rare. Last time I broke a spoke was in the late 90's when I was riding an inexpensive ($325) no-name mountain bike I bought at a big-box sporting goods store. I'd break a spoke on that beast about every three days.

Usually a wheel will give you a lot of warning before a spoke will actually break (although not if you are riding down staircases). It is a good idea to check your wheels every few days, spinning them to see if they are wobbling (although you can usually tell if there is a wobble, and a wobble is a very bad sign). You can feel the spokes and it is pretty easy to identify if any spokes are loose and a little more difficult to tell if one is too tight. If you detect loose spokes or a too-tight spoke take the bike to your bike shop and have them true the wheels.

If you weigh more than about 200lbs or if you ride hard or bumpy have your bike shop check your wheels frequently.

Sometimes if you bend or twist the rim you can't really fix it and if you try to ride on it you will break spokes with great efficiency.

Rivendell Bikes has a great discussion on spokes.

One thing this thread brings to mind is that it is much easier and much less expensive to replace wheels on a mid-drive bike than a hub drive. This is a bummer for two reasons: one is that if you bend or twist your rear wheel it might well be cheaper to replace your bike, and the other is that putting lighter, better-quality wheels on your bike can make a dramatic difference both in how far and how fast you can ride and also they are more fun.

Oh, and carry a fiberfix spoke[/QUOFi
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the Fibrefix looks interesting but I keep wondering why high end bikes still use spokes . You don't see wire wheels on cars anymore ( with the possible exeption of the Morgan if it is still in biz) . Wouldn,t some kind of alloy wheels be superior?
 
steve mercier said:
Wouldn,t some kind of alloy wheels be superior?
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Pedego offers a mag wheel option, and recommends mag wheels for heavier loads.

And spoke problems really aren't common--well built (and well-assembled) wheels and bikes don't get broken spokes unless they are abused. I never had a broken spoke on any of my conventional bikes, nor on any of our ebikes.

This also is, I think, a good reason for those who get bikes mail-ordered or who buy them from non-specialist shops to take the bike to a bicycle repair professional for a tune-up before getting too many miles on the bike. Some individuals may have these skills and not need the tune-up, or they may be lucky that the bike doesn't have problems that will result in breakage of some bike part, but I bet that most bikes that arrive in a box at the consumer's home can use more attention than the typical consumer is able to give to the bike.
 
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Lenny said:
Broken spokes on a hub motor bikes are often caused by poor wheel building.
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This is an invitation to bike manufacturers to up their game! But in a climate of lowest-possible-price, there is a disincentive. Makers can produce bikes cheaply and move a lot of units that way, and may not be thinking about the customer's long-term satisfaction or a bike's longevity. Long-term usability of the bicycle should be a top priority.
 
This could be about manf's who are in a race to one up the competition by using way heavier than necessary spokes too. Rather than use properly sized and/or possibly higher quality spokes, they can advertise they have gone with 12ga spokes to prevent issues.

Part of the problem as well, is using a spoke and rim designed for smaller diameter hubs, where the angle the spoke meets the rim is much shallower than say that same angle when used with a direct drive hub.
 
steve mercier said:
the Fibrefix looks interesting but I keep wondering why high end bikes still use spokes . You don't see wire wheels on cars anymore ( with the possible exeption of the Morgan if it is still in biz) . Wouldn,t some kind of alloy wheels be superior?
Click to expand...

Mostly because a spoked wheel has a higher strength-to-weight ratio. There are some carbon fiber wheels out there that are very light and don't really have spokes, but they generally haven't caught on.

I do have a Pedego with the mag wheels, which I find to be very heavy but indestructible.
 
here is a blurb from Grin technologies "
common reason for spokes to fail on hub motors isn't because the motor puts extra strain on the spokes, or because the spokes aren't a thick enough gauge, it's because of fatigue failure from spokes that aren't held snug against the flange. If the spoke bend radius is too large or too far from the head, then it can flex up and down at the bend with each wheel rotation, eventually causing it to crack and fail.

This problem has been legendary with overseas built hub motors, and we had some Crystalyte shipments where about half the customers would experience spoke breakage on a recurring basis. Ideally the distance between the head and the bend in your spoke will match the thickness of the hub flange, and you won't have problems. But if not, there are two ways to address the situation. One is to insert a washer under the spoke head. The second way is to lace the wheel in an over/under pattern, such that the spoke tension compresses the bend part of the spoke into the flange."
 
Mr. Coffee said:
Mostly because a spoked wheel has a higher strength-to-weight ratio. There are some carbon fiber wheels out there that are very light and don't really have spokes, but they generally haven't caught on.

I do have a Pedego with the mag wheels, which I find to be very heavy but indestructible.
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Mr Coffee do you mean the bike is incredibly heavy or the mag wheels are?
 
Love my interceptor! (pictured in my profile photo). I commute to work on it (25 miles round-trip), run errands, do recreational rides, etc. All urban/suburban riding.
 
Mr. Coffee said:
Both. The Interceptor is a heavy beast. But very well-made and great fun for shorter rides.
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I agree about the weight but being an e-bike, it really isn't a problem. I routinely do 50+ mile rides on one battery. I find the effort expended to be equivalent to a similar ride on one of my Trek MTB's. Finding a suitable rack is necessary though. At my age, lifting the bike onto a rack is no fun.
 
I broke a spoke on the rear wheel of my 2012 iZip Zuma E3 at 3000 miles. That bike had a 500W hub motor, battery mounted on the rear rack, and I routinely hauled 2 full grocery bags in the rear panniers. I'm no featherweight, either, at 220#. So that rear wheel was put to some considerable stress. LBS replaced the spoke, trued the wheel, and I didn't have any further problem as of the time I sold the bike (at about 5000 miles).
 
Drew said:
I broke a spoke on the rear wheel of my 2012 iZip Zuma E3 at 3000 miles. That bike had a 500W hub motor, battery mounted on the rear rack, and I routinely hauled 2 full grocery bags in the rear panniers. I'm no featherweight, either, at 220#. So that rear wheel was put to some considerable stress. LBS replaced the spoke, trued the wheel, and I didn't have any further problem as of the time I sold the bike (at about 5000 miles).
Click to expand...
So did you buy another rear hub drive bike ?
 
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