Spoke Breakage.

BiGH

BiGH

100 kW
Joined
Mar 28, 2007
Messages
1,085
Location
CBD - Melbourne
Hey Guys,
I'm still having problems braking spokes. It seems as though the spokes that came originally with the motor are all letting go. The replacement spokes (which are 14ga) seem to be holding up fine. I'm not sure if this is a quality issue with the crystalyte spokes, or what.

Has anyone had similar issues? should i go for a bunch of top quality DT spokes? (which i could get in black since the bike is going to get a paint soonish). these don't come in 12ga as far as i know though.

Take Care,
Haydon
 
yeah thats what i'm thinking of doing - i'm just looking for suggestions of good high quality spokes to use.
 
Definately respoke the whole wheel, just go to your favorite bike store, they know which spokes are best. If you want black ones then order a set of black spokes. My "bent" bike has black spokes and rims, looks very cool, even though I'm a chrome spoke lover, I was pleasantly surprised how nice it looks. They are very popular here in Canada.
 
In my experience a bike store will have trouble getting heavy guage spokes in the short lengths we require.

Let me know how you go Haydon, I have a downhill rim I want to rebuild my wheel with. I need ~180mm heavy guage spokes, and yep, black would be nice :)
 
yeah i agree - my local made me some spokes by trimming then taping the ends
 
Have you redone the spokes already?

Or was this the first time?

Brett Solarbbq can get 2.6mm E-bike spokes if you need. But probably not black...
 
Out of all of my hub motors only the crystalyte spokes have broken. I did order 12g replacements from powerride store, and also bought some locally at ebikes.ca
 
Mark_A_W said:
Have you redone the spokes already?

Or was this the first time?

Brett Solarbbq can get 2.6mm E-bike spokes if you need. But probably not black...
Click to expand...
I've ordered some from brett already -

its only the crystalyte ones that have broken :(:( (same as John above!)
 
Damn.

I broke a spoke today.

Funnily enough, it was on my rear wheel - the normal one on my bike.

After I've fixed it I'm going to fit a bigger tyre - the thin slick punishes the rear wheel. I'll get another Marathon Plus, they are bulletproof. I've had four flats on the Maxxis Overdrive Kevlar rear tyre, and non on the Marathon Plus on the front.

A road bike would last 5 mins with me riding it...
 
Abuse. Specifically going up gutters at 20+km/h...

And not checking they are tight.

The REALLY ANNOYING thing is I have a spare spoke the right size, but I don't have a Rear Cassette removal tool, and the spoke is on the cassette side...GRRR. Off to the bike shop tomorrow..
 
The rear gears.

In my case, it was a normal rear wheel that broke a spoke. My motor is in the front wheel.
 
There is alot involved with building a bike wheel, a fair amount of discussion on the Power-Assist groups about it. Trailing or leading spokes.. shoulder In or Out.. etc etc etc....

One monster of a guy ( like darn near 7ft tall 300+ lbs ) with plenty of experience building wheels says that DT swiss spokes, laced in a quality rim by the right builder should hold up like a charm.

I've laced a few myself using Sheldon Brown's website instructions, i've done 1 cross and radial lace, with 12 gauge spokes, and have not yet broken a single one.

Maybe i don't ride as hard as some of you guys, or the wheels you have were put together incorrectly, but spoke breakage seems to be an issue world-wide, :|

There has to be a solution.
 
Well, mystery solved.

When we pulled the cassette off the bike at the bikeshop (I bought a cassette tool too), turns out all eight spokes behind the cassette were almost ground through.

The previous owner had run the chain off the biggest gear REPEATEDLY and the chain had ground the spokes down. When I got the bike EVERYTHING was badly adjusted.

Now I have to replace 7 more spokes. Fun Fun FUN.
 
i hate spoke breakage :(

i'm going back to my local on monday to replace another 4 :p

gonna order a full new set too.
 
Save yourself the trouble and use 12G spokes.

I know a few professional wheel builders and on non powered bikes they find that the spokes that break are most often the ones that take the drive forces. It's baffling to think that someone pedalling could break spokes but according to these guys (who have built wheels for world class events), this is not an uncommon thing.

Of course wheel abuse will also break them, but it takes a fair bit of abuse to break a 12G. I've been using 12G spokes with all of my X5's and the only thing that has caused them to break so far is hitting a large sharp edged rock at 50 km/h.

If you're using a Crystalyte set up and you get spokes made at a bike shop, be weary of the end of the spoke that passes through the flange on the motor. Make sure that the head of the spoke is much larger than the hole otherwise you'll find them pulling though.
 
John Gotta say a big thankyou for all the suggestions and help on msn!
 
After about 6 months of regular use without any problems,
The spokes on my 408 hub motor began breaking, the one after the other, like in a nightmare
I think the problem is the quality of steel which is very poor, they all broke at the point nearest the hub, (which is the weakest) and the point of breakage appears rusty. When I took the tyre off to replace them I noticed that they also looked rusty near the nipple. Now i got a set of 12ga from powerridestore, but they are the same crystalyte spokes.

I think a good idea (for the owner of a new xlyte) would be to put some protective grease or stuff on the nipples when installing the kit.
 
I was told at one point that the torque of electrics is hard on spokes. Cheap Currie 12.5" wheels had spokes that got lose quickly and regularly... OK, strictly speaking, mighta been showing off rather than torgue, but anyway <grin>

So Joshua G. was kind enough to pass along an old C-lyte 16" cast wheel w/hub motor - no more wire spokes for me!

Yah, I expect the cast wheels are heavier, but hey, just another tradeoff, weight for me a distance second to reliability in the priority of things...

lOck
 
interesting! have you broken any of the new ones?

we need a good high quality source of 12ga spokes


do you think it would be better to put the spokes in more of an angle?
 
New spokes are ok so far, i replaced them and trued the
rim following Sheldon Browns instructions ,
but i can't tell wether the tension is right, i should get a special tool for that i guess.
I think the 12ga spokes from Powerridestore are made by Crystalyte so i'm not too optimistic about the future..
I don't think i understand the question about the angle..
 
getadirtbike said:
Save yourself the trouble and use 12G spokes.

<snip>

If you're using a Crystalyte set up and you get spokes made at a bike shop, be weary of the end of the spoke that passes through the flange on the motor. Make sure that the head of the spoke is much larger than the hole otherwise you'll find them pulling though.
Click to expand...

This is an easy to fix problem. i weigh in at 285Lbs (130Kg) and i have used 12ga (3.0mm) and 14ga (2.0mm) spokes to lace rims with few breakage problems. i prefer the 14ga stainless steel spokes. the only problem with them is the holes in the Crystalyte flange is the holes are too large for the spoke heads. i use thin brass washers like these

http://tinyurl.com/2kvxwe

to fix that problem. i've never had an issue with the head pulling through using these washers.

rick
 
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