CCX Spoke Replacement Instructions/Tips

M

max_power

New Member
Hey All,

Have had my CCX for about two weeks- absolutely love it. Using it as a car replacement around Atlanta and it's been working out great. (Despite having a massive nail in the rear tire ~2 days into ownership o_O).

That being said, I did not get the commonly recommended tune-up at 100miles, and sure enough after I hit 120 miles today I broke a spoke in the rear wheel.

Having never fixed a broken spoke before, the line from this Juiced support page has me slightly nervous. It reads:
Remember that the rear spokes have different tension levels on each side of the wheel to accommodate the torque sensor
Click to expand...

Some questions I have:
  • Will my Bosch-certified other-ebike-friendly LBS be able to handle this?
    • I have already ordered the rear spokes from juiced since I called and they stated they do not have the part.
    • I don't believe they have worked on any juiced ebikes before.
  • What is the correct spoke tension for each side of the rear wheel?
  • Is it possible to do this type of repair at home in case it ever happens again?
    • I normally do most bike maintenance myself, but this seems a little out of my league.
Thank you guys for your help. This form was part of my reasoning to make this decision in the first place. I hope to get back on the road soon!
 
Any bike shop should be able to replace a spoke and tension and true the wheel; it does not matter that it is an e-bike. I do not know what the tension should be (it is determined by the rim), but generally speaking, the tension will be higher on the drive side because of the offset of the hub flanges due to the space needed for the freewheel/cassette. You can do it yourself, although it would be better to have some guidance doing the first time. Without a tensiometer, the best way to determine if you have proper tension is to pluck the spoke. It should have roughly the same pitch as the other spokes on the same side.
 
Make sure the bike shop stress relieves all the spokes. If they don't know what that means or don't want to, find another shop.

Your spoke broke for a reason. The reason is almost alway fatigue in high stress places like the elbows and nipple entry. Spokes can fatigue and break after just 100 miles of detensioning and retensioning once every wheel revolution. Stress relieving by momentarily increasing the spoke tension serves to relax the stress in these areas. https://www.sheldonbrown.com/brandt/stress-relieving.html

Because so many people are breaking spokes on Juiced Bikes, you gotta wonder if Juiced wheel builders know about this.
 
max_power said:
Hey All,

Have had my CCX for about two weeks- absolutely love it. Using it as a car replacement around Atlanta and it's been working out great. (Despite having a massive nail in the rear tire ~2 days into ownership o_O).

That being said, I did not get the commonly recommended tune-up at 100miles, and sure enough after I hit 120 miles today I broke a spoke in the rear wheel.

Having never fixed a broken spoke before, the line from this Juiced support page has me slightly nervous. It reads:


Some questions I have:
  • Will my Bosch-certified other-ebike-friendly LBS be able to handle this?
    • I have already ordered the rear spokes from juiced since I called and they stated they do not have the part.
    • I don't believe they have worked on any juiced ebikes before.
  • What is the correct spoke tension for each side of the rear wheel?
  • Is it possible to do this type of repair at home in case it ever happens again?
    • I normally do most bike maintenance myself, but this seems a little out of my league.
Thank you guys for your help. This form was part of my reasoning to make this decision in the first place. I hope to get back on the road soon!
Click to expand...

@max_power:

Check the box or bag with accesories and tools you received from Juiced with the new CCX bike. With my bike they sent two spare spokes for the rear wheel, with nipples.
Observe that not only the rear wheel has the left side spokes at different tension that the right side. The front wheel also seems to have the spokes at different tension (angle) to accomodate the brake. Both wheels are "dished".

Your post serves as an alert to me. I have not checked the spokes and my bike is 500+ miles.
 
Last edited:
Interesting. The roads around here are extremely rough and I like to go fast... May have something to do with it.

@jom thanks for pointing out the spares in the box! You're a life saver! Going to try and get it fixed today.

@youth would definitely recommend getting that checked out sooner rather than later. Having to get this fixed after the fact is no fun.
 
After the first 500+ miles on the CCX I measured the tension on both wheels, using the TM1 Park Tool.
Values expressed in TM1 units and kgf (conversion to kgf using the steel spoke diameter of 2.29 mm = 0.09"):

REAR LEFT: range 26-29, or 80-120 kgf, average ~100 kgf
REAR RIGHT: range 30-33, or 130-194 kgf, average ~160 kgf

FRONT LEFT: range 29-32, or 120-168 kgf, average ~140 kgf
FRONT RIGHT: range 25-28, or 75-112 kgf, average ~94 kgf

1552593083557.png
 
youth said:
After over a 1000 miles I had noticed one loose spoke (drive side) on my CCX. No breakage yet, but the wheel could use a tension check & some truing. With the park tension gauge IIRC the drive side was 30-32 & other side was 25-27.
Click to expand...

It's normal for the drive side to have a higher spoke tension then the other side on a dished wheel. As long as each side (left/right) has comparable spoke tension between individual spokes it's all good
 
erider_61 said:
It's normal for the drive side to have a higher spoke tension then the other side on a dished wheel. As long as each side (left/right) has comparable spoke tension between individual spokes it's all good
Click to expand...

Yes, in the CCX both wheels, front and rear, are dished.
 
ispeak3 said:
I'm curious, how often are you all tightening your spokes (the rear wheel specifically)? CCS rider here.
Click to expand...

I did it for the first time at 550 miles; I weight 160 lb and ride at 20 mph or less in mostly flat paved surface, so I may not be a good reference.
I found three spokes of the rear wheel outside the recommended 20% from the average, as well as four spokes of the left side on the front wheel.
In the chart above I plotted the average points on the curve. For example, for the front left, to be off by 20% the tension would be off the range 140+/- 28 kgf, or 112<->168 kgf.
I just did a very minimum adjustment to put them both within the 20%, no attempt to true them.
Pics below after adjustment; both wheels are dished but in opposite direction.
Park Tool App, Front wheel:
1552698240179.png


Park Tool App, Rear wheel:
1552698295250.png
 
Last edited:
ispeak3 said:
I'm curious, how often are you all tightening your spokes (the rear wheel specifically)? CCS rider here.
Click to expand...
Initially, I checked/ tightened every couple of weeks. Now it's maybe once a month or so. During break in it seemed loose spokes were far more common than now. Front always stayed tighter than rear, I have very rarely needed any adjustment to the front. Rear definitely needs regular maintenance.
 
I had one really loose spoke on the rear wheel. I better get serious! 385 miles! :eek:

What tools do you guys suggest? What values do you put in the WTA tool?
 
Nipples can vibrate loose. This won't normally occur with a properly tensioned and stress-relieved wheel, but tension being lower on the non-drive side of a rear wheel (or on the non-disc side of a disc brake equipped front wheel), there is a higher chance of it. Some wheel builders often use a thread-locking compound ("SpokePrep") on the spoke threads to combat this.
 
BrianMura said:
I had one really loose spoke on the rear wheel. I better get serious! 385 miles! :eek:

What tools do you guys suggest? What values do you put in the WTA tool?
Click to expand...

Brian, I used the TM1 from Parker to measure spoke tension, used 0.09 inch = 2.286 mm round steel spoke, and entered the data in wta. In my bike the nipples of the front wheel are different size than the rear. You will need to adjust the nipples with the proper nut drivers available in Amazon or your local shop.

I entered the raw values from the TM1 in wta, and it will calculate the kgf for you. Or you can ignore the wta and adjust the nipples just using the raw values, so that they fall within the ranges shown in my table (see above in a previous post) for left, right sides for rear and front. The raw ranges listed will make all tensions be within 20%. As Nova Haibike mentioned above, some blue locktite may be required to keep the nipples from becoming loose.
 
Last edited:
Got around to this after 800 miles! Entered steel, round, 2.25 mm, and measured the front wheel spokes. I will do the rear next...

Here are my results after measuring. Haven't touched them yet... what do you make of them? :D
 

Attachments

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max_power said:
Hey All,

Have had my CCX for about two weeks- absolutely love it. Using it as a car replacement around Atlanta and it's been working out great. (Despite having a massive nail in the rear tire ~2 days into ownership o_O).

That being said, I did not get the commonly recommended tune-up at 100miles, and sure enough after I hit 120 miles today I broke a spoke in the rear wheel.

Having never fixed a broken spoke before, the line from this Juiced support page has me slightly nervous. It reads:


Some questions I have:
  • Will my Bosch-certified other-ebike-friendly LBS be able to handle this?
    • I have already ordered the rear spokes from juiced since I called and they stated they do not have the part.
    • I don't believe they have worked on any juiced ebikes before.
  • What is the correct spoke tension for each side of the rear wheel?
  • Is it possible to do this type of repair at home in case it ever happens again?
    • I normally do most bike maintenance myself, but this seems a little out of my league.
Thank you guys for your help. This form was part of my reasoning to make this decision in the first place. I hope to get back on the road soon!
Click to expand...
Does anyone have a good source for replacement rear spokes for the CCX that have them in stock. I've got just over 200 miles & broke 8 spokes on the last ride.
 
Palionking said:
Does anyone have a good source for replacement rear spokes for the CCX that have them in stock. I've got just over 200 miles & broke 8 spokes on the last ride.
Click to expand...
if you have that problem you need the wheel rebuilt by a wheel smith. it will never be good till its rebuilt. 3 spokes is about the limit before you need to rebuilt from the ground up.
 
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