Broken spokes

[J.R.]

why are all the spoke heads pointing out?

On my larger direct drive hub motor bike, all the spokes heads point out. On my smaller geared hub motor bike the spokes alternate. I think most of the larger diameter direct drive motors are like that because of the limited space between the hub spoke holes and the nipples in the rim. If the spoke started inside it would have to be bent more than 90° to meet the nipples. Short, heavy guage spokes and very little room.

 

[flymeaway]

On my larger direct drive hub motor bike, all the spokes heads point out.

Thanks......I learned something new today.

Court J.

 

[J.R.]

Thanks......I learned something new today.

Court J.

I don't think the way it's done on direct drive's invalidates your point. My take away from having owned this type of wheel and motor is, a better design is needed. The flange where the spokes mount on the hub needs to be moved inward to allow for proper lacing of the wheel. If my spokes are even a little loose, it creaks from the severe rubbing. In addition, because all the spokes are installed on the same side of the hub, there is a little curve to all them, which puts added stress on all the spokes and may be the cause of some failures. There's nothing that can be done, I can't make the hub smaller or the wheel bigger. I keep a close eye on the wheel and tune-true the wheel often.

 

[eagamer80]

I was curious about how to measure the spoke tension. It seems that Park Tool has an awesome device to measure that. What I like the most, is that you can input all your measurements on a web (free) and get your calculations and recommendation of adjustments. I think I will buy one for me =) I just need to find a non-professional centering tool for my wheel. I've seen a few for around 70 dollars (the pro ones, for example Park Tool one, could cost 400 dollars). The tensiometer tool cost around 80 dollars. Check up this video. Enjoy =)

 

[jamesthewright]

Just broke my first spoke at around 2800 miles. It was on the rear wheel at the nipple as well. It appears the nipple failed, but I won't know until later today when I pick up a new one and a set of spokes for the future. They will likely have to order the spokes unfortunately since they are so unique.

Cheers!

 

[flymeaway]

I keep a close eye on the wheel and tune-true the wheel often.

That's a very good practice. I don't think many riders look at the wheel assembly as a regular maintenance item, even though they should.

Court J.

 

[eagamer80]

I just got the tool to measure the spoke tensions, it's an interesting tool and I found it very useful. This is me taking some measures one by one on each side.

I asked about it in several bike stores they didn't even have it. To my surprise, my manually adjusted spokes were not so bad in tension in the 20% variance (let's say, within the recommended tolerance level). Here the first measurements of my wheel:

Ideally, when you keep decreasing the tolerance to a lower %, more alerts will show up where you can keep adjusting the tension on each spoke to achieve equal values against an adjacent one:

I don't think is very easy (and necessary) to achieve equal tension on each spoke (as long as you don't surpass the tolerances) as the more you adjust, the more untrue your wheel becomes, so it's kind of hard to keep a good truing-spoke tension level balance. There lies the trick. I'll keep you posted when I can refine my adjustments and take further measurements in the future.

The standard measurement according to the app was 28 for the left side and 32 for the right side (these values are from the tool, there's a conversion table to kg) and I suspect these values are not far from the limit of tension of these spokes (Specialized to not publish the turbo spoke specifications, only the diameter which could be between 2 or 2.3 mm. It was 2.3 in my case). The app starts asking the diameter, shape, and material to calculate an approximate recommended value for the tension if you don't have that from your manufacturer (it was easy to deduce the spokes were steel with a magnet).

With this tool and a cheap centering device (which didn't fit very well for the back wheel of the Turbo bike BTW, because the hub is larger than a normal wheel but I could manage) I now feel much more confident in doing this myself. I even changed the 2 broken spokes without much issues (I just needed to replace some worn spoke nipples in the process).

I know I should leave this task to the dealer as the bike is still under warranty, but I just felt I wanted to do this myself for two main reasons:

- I want to learn how to do it (I love doing bike maintenance and mechanics myself)
- I don't trust my dealer as they're not a spoke specialists, they're just a regular sports store.

Now I feel like if I buy a new rim and a few extra spokes, I can do a new wheel all by myself.

 

[flymeaway]

Now I feel like if I buy a new rim and a few extra spokes, I can do a new wheel all by myself.

If you are going to build a new wheel from scratch I'd advise buying a complete set of new spokes and nipples. I would not reuse spokes or nipples taken from a wheel that has been used....just my opinion. Another bit of advice, if you intend on building a wheel, read a couple of articles on the subject. I have found that following a strict procedure on how each spoke is tightened from initial install to finished wheel leads to a better outcome and less backtracking.

Good luck....

Court J.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

I just had my bike in to get a replacement battery (the original 691Wh SBC-B05 got bricked when the upgrade yo current 5.12 firmware failed). While in, I asked them to check spoke tension on the rear wheel due to known issues with broken spokes. I had one break on me at around 900 mi. The current check (1303 mi) showed good and equal tension in all of the spokes save one that needed just a bit of tightening.

 

[eagamer80]

I will go to the dealer and tell them that I want a whole new rear wheel. I do not accept any more spoke changes. Today I broke the 4th after 6km ride. It looks like most of the spokes on the bike were faulty. I discard the tension on the spokes because I measured them and were well adjusted, it has to be something related on the quality of the spokes. I also have to repair the backlight of the LCD display anyway, so...

 

[bazzapage]

My problem seems to have been a cracked axle tube. That is being replaced under warranty along with a full wheel rebuild. If there are multiple spokes breaking there must be an underlying cause.

 

[eagamer80]

Last January I sent the whole bike to be checked due to the broken spokes and LCD issues. Took it to my dealer and they were really surprised about breaking so many spokes. Without hesitation talked to Specialized and changed the whole wheel and a new LCD panel (backlight was dead). Here some pics of the new wheel (same model and power as before). The pictures I took them yesterday, which BTW as winter is apparently over (at least in theory), I took the occasion to change the winter wheels for a brand new Marathon Plus 47" which I tested them this morning and are awesome!
300km (2xx miles) and so far so good. We'll see how many spokes I break before reaching 1000.

 

[jwb]

I broke a spoke in the front, and decided to build a new wheel for it. Got me thinking if anyone has built a wheel for the rear of this rig. Since the hub is so huge I'm not sure what my approach would be, how I would want the holes angled, or where I would get the spokes.

 

[eagamer80]

I broke a spoke in the front, and decided to build a new wheel for it. Got me thinking if anyone has built a wheel for the rear of this rig. Since the hub is so huge I'm not sure what my approach would be, how I would want the holes angled, or where I would get the spokes.

Hi, I had a stupid accident on ice and I bent the front aluminium rim. As it's pretty standard, I bought a new one online for 60 dollars (It's a bike part reseller here in Europe). It was particularly this one, it's in Swedish but you can easily see the specs. The width of the rim is a little bit narrower than the original from Specialized I broke, but any 47" tyre fit without issues. For sure I saved at least 100 dollars if I had to order an original one from Specialized.
Regarding the rear, I was thinking in rebuilding one myself too, but it turned out that my dealer replaced the whole wheel after breaking the 4th spoke. But what you will need is to buy new spokes with EXACTLY the same lenght and at least the same width (I attach you an image with the measures of the original spoke, I don't have the width but If I don't remember bad, it was 2mm), but you can order the original spokes from your dealer, they cost 1,5 dollars each from Specialized. Another thing you will need is a Spoke tensiometer (as shown above, something like the ParkTool one), nipples to fit the rim and the spokes, this tool with the exact size of the nipples (sorry, but I don't know the name in English), patience, observing many Youtube tutorials and recommendations from other people, and good luck. Regarding how you should rebuild it, I would recommend you to keep the original distribution. So, to sum up, I would give this to an expert unless you have the time and will to do it. Good luck.

 

[Tom Brossart]

Blarg, I've had a Specialized E Turbo for 13 months now and I broke my 4th spoke yesterday. All 4 breaks have been on the rim side. Today I will be going into the shop I purchased it from to get it checked out and see if we need to put on all new spokes or if we'll just keep doing these one-off repairs.

@eagamer80 based on your comment #26, would you recommend I invest in the tools to measure spoke tension, tighten the spokes, and true the wheel? This bike is my main form of transport so everytime I break a spoke it's about a week of inconvenience getting it repaired...so I'm leaning towards learning to do more of this myself, but at the same time I'm hesitant to spend a lot of money on tools I don't really understand..

 

[jwb]

@Tom Brossart are you breaking spokes on the front or rear?

 

[bazzapage]

@Tom Brossart I recently went through 4 spokes on the rear Turbo S wheel - each one broke at the hub end. I replaced these myself - once I had done one it wasn't all that hard using a screwdriver and a spoke tool. I trued the wheel on the bike using a cable tie on the chainstay as the straightness guide.
I'd rather do that than send it to the LBS each time.
At this stage it seems to have settled down but if they start pinging again I will get it rebuilt with 2.2/2.0 DT butted spokes rather than the 2.0 straight spokes.

 

[eagamer80]

[QUOTE="@eagamer80[/USER] based on your comment #26, would you recommend I invest in the tools to measure spoke tension, tighten the spokes, and true the wheel? This bike is my main form of transport so everytime I break a spoke it's about a week of inconvenience getting it repaired...so I'm leaning towards learning to do more of this myself, but at the same time I'm hesitant to spend a lot of money on tools I don't really understand..[/QUOTE]

At the beginning I tried to fix it myself (I had a few extra spokes and even bought the tension measuring tool which was not expensive and I still think is worthy to have for future bikes), but even so, when I believed that the tensions were correct (I am sure they were, at least I followed the recommendations of park tool), the spokes kept breaking out, so I guess there was something really wrong with the manufacturing of the wheel, may be all the spokes came out wrong or the wheel was not truly balanced, or who the hell knows.

If you're out of warranty and you are on your own:

1) Send it to your dealer and let Specialized fix it with the warranty (or even without the warranty, ask for pricing).
2) If Specialized pricing is exorbitant, ask a proper bike store with the right expertise in spokes or wheel building. Ask for someone who can warranty the job in case you experience further problems.

I believe that if you have proper spokes (may be steel instead of aluminum) and if the job is done by someone who really know how to make wheels, this shouldn't be an issue. I think the spokes quality from Specialized are not up to the task (design issue).

 

[JBB]

Hello all,

I am from France and I am using my Turbo FLR (25km/h legal speed) for 2 months, especially for commuting +/- 50 km/day.

I changed the tire (Marathon + and Michelin Protect) and the brake pad (rear finished in 500km and front finished in 1.000km).

I am reaching 2.000 km, and today I break my first spoke (rear)... I am looking to buy new one, do you have a website to buy this particular spoke? For example I cannot find on German website (rosebike, ...) website's I found everything for my previous bike....

The spoke seems to be very breakable, do you have any return from the customer service of Specialized?

thanks for your help,

regards,

JB

 

[eagamer80]

Hi,

If you're sure this break was not your fault (like breaking it in a normal ride and suddenly broke), check it with your bike shop. It should be covered by the warranty. If more spokes keep breaking all of a sudden, then your wheel is faulty and should be replaced for a new one. Since they have replaced mine, no more broken spokes happen, but I still think is a good idea to check the tension of the spokes with the park tool (procedure described in this thread) once a year or so.