Broken spoke

I have a broken inside spoke on the rear wheel of my 71.
Is there a trick to replacing it? If I remove the chain I think I can get it past the hub but it will be on the wrong side of the one next to it.
Do I have to remove that one as well?
Thanks MikeM

You will have to take the wheel off the bike, remove the tyre etc and even remove a couple of other spokes to get the broken one out. There are no decent short cuts I am afraid. I have heard the some have bent a spoke to get it into place. Not my cup of tea.
Dereck

if it was an outer spoke then you would have a chance

kerinorton said:

I have heard the some have bent a spoke to get it into place. Not my cup of tea.
Dereck

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Muchly. Don't be tempted to bent the spoke, as you then have to straighten it back out to get it in place. Two bends past yield could potentially lead to another broken spoke. As said by Kerinorton, you'll have to remove some of the surrounding spokes to do it proper.
Keep in mind that, with the one spoke broken, the others around it have now been overloaded. Also, what could have led to the first one breaking? Things to keep in mind.

Nathan

Have fun mate. I spent a while stripping down my original wheels the other day, and it was a fun chore. Penetrating oil on the nipples overnight is your friend. Even so, I dont have a spoke wrench and ended up breaking my little 1/4" open ended wrench after a wheel and a half. :evil:

And sometimes new spokes may be a bit too long, necessitating some grinding inside the wheel unless you like perpetually flattened tires. Take the wheel off, remove the tire and tube and then do what you have to do.

Danno said:

And sometimes new spokes may be a bit too long, necessitating some grinding inside the wheel unless you like perpetually flattened tires. Take the wheel off, remove the tire and tube and then do what you have to do.

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+1 also take measurements before you start so you can get the offset correct. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to have an extra rim band (and tube) around just in case.

Best tire irons I ever bought:
http://www.stubbytiretools.com/

I used them on powered coated and anodized aluminum rims with out a scratch.


(Edit)
Mike you also might want to mark the tire location on the rim to avoid having to have it re-balanced..