BROKEN SPOKES
- Thread starter USMC7578
- Start date
Drunkskunk
100 GW
While it would help to know the brand of the motor, the answer is better quality spokes.
The spokes you get on almost all hub motors are going to be the overly thick extra soft chinese spokes that give most of us nightmares when we run at high power or heavy weight. The average Adult male weight in china is 145lbs. In America its 191lbs (taken from google search) So we are harder on the spokes than they were designed for.
Breaking at the elbow is a sign that the spokes have been too lose. That can happen when spokes are too thick, and/or too soft so that they don't spring back propperly after taking tension. Spokes are ment to share the load, and when some are lose, they others have to take on an extra load and eventualy fail. With the soft chinese spokes, it becomes difficult to keep the spokes tight all the time.
Use a quality 14 guage or double butted 13/14 gauge spoke from DTswiss, Phil Wood, or Sapim. Your wheel may be using 12 or 13 gauge spokes now, but the 14 gauge, while thinner, will be stronger and better able to handle the stresses on it.
The spokes you get on almost all hub motors are going to be the overly thick extra soft chinese spokes that give most of us nightmares when we run at high power or heavy weight. The average Adult male weight in china is 145lbs. In America its 191lbs (taken from google search) So we are harder on the spokes than they were designed for.
Breaking at the elbow is a sign that the spokes have been too lose. That can happen when spokes are too thick, and/or too soft so that they don't spring back propperly after taking tension. Spokes are ment to share the load, and when some are lose, they others have to take on an extra load and eventualy fail. With the soft chinese spokes, it becomes difficult to keep the spokes tight all the time.
Use a quality 14 guage or double butted 13/14 gauge spoke from DTswiss, Phil Wood, or Sapim. Your wheel may be using 12 or 13 gauge spokes now, but the 14 gauge, while thinner, will be stronger and better able to handle the stresses on it.
Ykick
1 GW
Stock Chinese spokes and rims are crap and likely not correctly sized for serious use either.
Rebuild the wheel with proper quality components and you may never need to touch a spoke wrench again. I used a Sun Mammoth Fat eylet rim and 13/14ga SS butted spokes from John Holmes. Night and day compared to the original junk that required constant truing and eventually started breaking like yours.
Rebuild the wheel with proper quality components and you may never need to touch a spoke wrench again. I used a Sun Mammoth Fat eylet rim and 13/14ga SS butted spokes from John Holmes. Night and day compared to the original junk that required constant truing and eventually started breaking like yours.
johnrobholmes
10 MW
Breaking at the head can also suggest the spoke is loose in the hole, allowing the head to flex and fatigue. Probably the shape of the spoke as much as oversized holes in the hub.
parajared
10 kW
I was breaking spokes like crazy when I put my battery bay on the rear rack. I guess the weight of the batteries had a much worse effect than I had imagined. Things got much better when I put the batteries in the middle.
Kinni420
100 W
I began breaking spokes in my rear DD motor myself a few weeks ago but it was at the nipple.
In general the wheel came with junky chinese made 12g spokes. Thicker spokes = less flex. A hard bump would snap one. When I got the wheel all the spokes were loose so I took out a small crecent wrench and after rounding out about 1/2 of the nipples I had an almost straight wheel. they lasted about 2000 miles before they began to break in the cold. I obviously over-tightened them. I knew this was coming so i wasnt suprised or disappointed.
My suggestion is to take the wheel to a GOOD-quality bike shop in your area that has a spoke cutter and knowledgeable techs to have your wheel rebuilt with high-quality 14g spokes. make sure they use spokes that have a large spoke head! 3.5mm I think is what I got. 14g spokes have more flex and will last a lot longer than the junk that came with your kit, I had this done for $60 US last weekend. $.75 a spoke and the rest for the build and true. Save some money and DIY, 1 cross spoke pattern is very easy and fast to build, cut 4 spokes, put in new ones the EXACT same way the old ones came out (take pics if you aren't sure) then bring it to a shop for a good true.
heres a pic of the new wheel
In general the wheel came with junky chinese made 12g spokes. Thicker spokes = less flex. A hard bump would snap one. When I got the wheel all the spokes were loose so I took out a small crecent wrench and after rounding out about 1/2 of the nipples I had an almost straight wheel. they lasted about 2000 miles before they began to break in the cold. I obviously over-tightened them. I knew this was coming so i wasnt suprised or disappointed.
My suggestion is to take the wheel to a GOOD-quality bike shop in your area that has a spoke cutter and knowledgeable techs to have your wheel rebuilt with high-quality 14g spokes. make sure they use spokes that have a large spoke head! 3.5mm I think is what I got. 14g spokes have more flex and will last a lot longer than the junk that came with your kit, I had this done for $60 US last weekend. $.75 a spoke and the rest for the build and true. Save some money and DIY, 1 cross spoke pattern is very easy and fast to build, cut 4 spokes, put in new ones the EXACT same way the old ones came out (take pics if you aren't sure) then bring it to a shop for a good true.
heres a pic of the new wheel
Goathead
100 W
I've got the rear geared from Ebikekit, same thing happened.
Like most new wheels, you'll need to retension some of the spokes, they seat when you ride the first few miles. (That's why we'd test ride bikes and, re-tension the wheels before putting them out for sale when I worked at a bike shop.)
The Avenir round spoke wrench has a slot that fits the oversize spokes on their wheels, you'll probably locate the loose ones by wiggling them.
A bike shop can do this for you, too, if you don't want to do your own wheel truing.
(I think they build with Sapim spokes.)
Like most new wheels, you'll need to retension some of the spokes, they seat when you ride the first few miles. (That's why we'd test ride bikes and, re-tension the wheels before putting them out for sale when I worked at a bike shop.)
The Avenir round spoke wrench has a slot that fits the oversize spokes on their wheels, you'll probably locate the loose ones by wiggling them.
A bike shop can do this for you, too, if you don't want to do your own wheel truing.
(I think they build with Sapim spokes.)
miro13car
100 kW
agree with Ykick
maybe others wll jump in and say apply thread lock /radiculous/, washers etc.
But there is little you can do except getting quality rim like MAVIC and thinner quality spokes like DT SWISS and have a wheel built by bike shop.
You will never have to touch it with any wrench
China brands rims are crap made of pot aluminium kind soft and they put thick spokes on them made of who knows of what?
maybe others wll jump in and say apply thread lock /radiculous/, washers etc.
But there is little you can do except getting quality rim like MAVIC and thinner quality spokes like DT SWISS and have a wheel built by bike shop.
You will never have to touch it with any wrench
China brands rims are crap made of pot aluminium kind soft and they put thick spokes on them made of who knows of what?
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