Broken Spokes: for how long?

dear All,
I just realized I have two broken spokes in my rear wheel. Soon I will have a new Stainless Steel rim and spokes, but in the meantime, I am wondering: for how long I can keep riding with a couple of broken spokes in the back without danger for the bike and risk for me?

No wheelies or burnouts , and keep it below 90 mph in third gear . :shock: :lol: 8)

Matt Spencer said:

No wheelies or burnouts , and keep it below 90 mph in third gear . :shock: :lol: 8)

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c'mon.. seriously.. :roll:

He is serious...you "could" ride on it forever like that. I would be more concerned with why they are broken and what condition are the rest of the spokes. Did they break from corrosion, too much or too little tension, or did they recieve a blow from something? Are the placed randomly in the wheel, or are they in the same location on the rim? The job of the 40 spokes in the wheel are to keep it in "perfect" tension. There area lot of wheels out there with 36 spokes so you probably have enough left to do the job, but the real question is are they?

and are the broken ends floating around inside the rim punching holes in the tube?

I would at least take it off the bike, probably pull the tire and inspect the rim.
Russ

I cringe when riding with broken spokes. I have done it but wouldn't recommend it. I have seen wheels collapse but never experianced it. The common result is the broken spoke or nipple punctures the inner tube. Jim

How long before you get it fixed? How much riding are you planning until then?

LIkely could run forever like that but best if also running a bit low air pressure to keep rim shock loads down while waiting to replace it all. Real rim trouble will show up as a wiggle when watching wheel turn by hand or on the fly, but nothing else till full failure which I've not heard of so far. Just going around and snugging up spokes w/o also watching a dial gauge or wire on side of rim, may just pull rim worse out of round and over strain remaining spokes.

comnoz said:

I cringe when riding with broken spokes... The common result is the broken spoke or nipple punctures the inner tube. Jim

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Found that one out the hard way a couple of years ago, hadn't noticed a broken spoke and got a rear flat coming into a corner :shock:
After an excursion on the wrong side of the road managed to get back to my side just before the oncoming car went past.
I wouldn't ride further than back home without fixing the spoke(s).

Should remove the broken ends from the nipples to avoid the deflateing experiance.
If the two arnt adjacent , one'd keep going , through the Sahara .

Flick the wheel up and do the old tea spon trick ( or screwdriver or spanner ) Spin the wheel and see if its still musical .

Should be a ' ting ' not a Plonk . Is used to see if tensions are even . TIGTENING SPOKES is a REGULAR maintance Item .

Particularly on new respoked wheels , as their bound to snug in , settle , or stretch . Normally a few are not tight and a 1/2 doz not so tight .
little Spoke Spanners like those Tyre Valve Tools , little short t thing . Slips on and give it a twist . you get a feel for them , along with the music . :idea:

I spend about a year reading up on off road wheel builders to find that spokes must be tighter than any impact that could compress/dflect rim to loosen spokes tension. No way could I get the HI strung torque with a mere spoke wrench as not good enough close fit not to just round off the nipple, so I use small adjustable wrench snugged down for each nipple and handle long enough to really twist em down, till almost shearing the threads or twisting spoke, which bind I'd relieve but a smack with small hammer on nipple head while holding HI torque on the wrench and watching dial gauge not to upset the alignment.

Each row of spokes of same length and angle should have similar tone, not the same as the next row of different length or angle. I tap each spoke 3 x's and listen for the lower tone then tweak and go around and around like that - for hours over days- also shocking the whole rim spun while pressing a wrench on the passing spokes in valley to vibe it to release binding. Then do it some more till just can tweak tighter w/o damage to wrench or spokes. Bicycle guys that get their wimpy rims too tight suddenly have rim flip out of shape like umbrella caught in a storm.