Broken Spoke

[yorkshiregoth]

One of my rear spokes broke this morning on my fixie. Managed to get it sorted during my meal break, although was charged £15 by the LBS to fix ONE broken spoke. Bloomin' rip off.

Anyway, after the spoke went, I noticed that the handling of the bike was terrible, it felt like I was riding on black ice with flat tires. Is that normal with just one broken spoke?

 

[hubgearfreak]

was charged £15 by the LBS to fix ONE broken spoke. Bloomin' rip off.

really? perhaps you'd like to contact an estate agent locally and see what the rent is for a shop. then the local authority and find out the rates. then electricity, water, insurance, wages, the accountants & etc.

or set your own bike shop up that charges reasonable rates?, and go bust quickly

 

[dodgy]

How much would the bike shop have to charge before you decided it was time to learn to try to repair it yourself?

Anyway, the dodgy handling seems a little weird!

Dave.

 

[vernon]

One of my rear spokes broke this morning on my fixie. Managed to get it sorted during my meal break, although was charged £15 by the LBS to fix ONE broken spoke. Bloomin' rip off.

Anyway, after the spoke went, I noticed that the handling of the bike was terrible, it felt like I was riding on black ice with flat tires. Is that normal with just one broken spoke?

I'd baulk at £15 up here in Leeds. Thankfully since I started to use handbuilt wheels, broken spokes are a thing of the past for me. Woodrups used to charge around £8 and it went up to around £10 last time I needed the service.

As you appear to be living in London, I suppose the overheads are that much greater for the LBS owner hence the elevated price.

One broken spoke can make a lot of difference to the handling of the bike. I certainly could detect that a spoke had gone even if there wasn't an accompanying 'ping'. I could detect the flexing of the rim once the spoke had snapped. I can also detect when there's a loss of tension in the spokes. A single spoke breakage is rideable I think I managed to copw with three broken spokes on tour - It was as the very beginning of my return to cycling and as I was cycle camping at the time I thought that the extra sway was caused by frame flex under load.

 

[yorkshiregoth]

Reason I mentioned the price is the last time I had to replace spokes, I was charged £10 for 3 spokes including labour. Obviously overheads will be a lot higher in London, the guy only took about 10 minutes to fix it so the service was very good.

I do wish that I was able to do more of my own repairs though. I can just about adjust my brakes, gears and fix a puncture as it is Never been good with mechanical stuff.

 

[hubgearfreak]

Reason I mentioned the price is the last time I had to replace spokes, I was charged £10 for 3 spokes including labour. Obviously overheads will be a lot higher in London, the guy only took about 10 minutes to fix it so the service was very good.

spokes may be 25p each, but re-truing the wheel is the real time consumer. it'll need doing whether there's one gone or ten

 

[barq]

I agree with Hubgearfreak about the material cost of spokes versus the cost of wheel truing.

Anyway as far as handling goes... it can make quite a difference depending on how far the wheel went out of true. Drive side spokes (which fail more often) make more difference.

 

[MessenJah]

I rode with a missing spoke once, and it didn't affect my bike's handling much - it just felt a little bit wobbly. Barely noticeable. The more spokes you have, the lesser the effect one broken spoke will have on the wheel.

 

[Steve Austin]

really? perhaps you'd like to contact an estate agent locally and see what the rent is for a shop. then the local authority and find out the rates. then electricity, water, insurance, wages, the accountants & etc.

or set your own bike shop up that charges reasonable rates?, and go bust quickly

I don't think thats very fair. Replacing a spoke takes minutes. if its truing a wheel with one replaced spoke it will take minutes as well. there is no way anyone should charge more than fiver for this, which even for the most inexperienced spanner monkey takes less than five minutes.
I would happily fix anyones wheels for free btw. but then i'm not in the habit of trying to make money out of Cycling.

Shops shouldn't rip off customers just because they haves costs, and £15 for replacing a spoke is a rip-off

 

[Tim Bennet.]

I don't think it is.

Cyclists have to decide what they want: We can either have local bike shops that are viable businesses and can invest in training and staff to offer a good service, or we can have 'pile them high - sell it cheap by monkeys' type shops (either physical shops or on the internet) with no other interest than providing the lowest possible price.

Complaining about someone charging about 20 minutes labour plus parts to replace a spoke is clear evidence that we don't give a monkey's about a viable, quality network of LBSs.

 

[Steve Austin]

TBH Tim i don't use shops. They charge too much. Take too long to order anything. Take too long to fix anything. and did i mention they charge too much?

I asked for an ally cable cap a few years ago, and was asked for 1pound. I laughed and the shopkeeper was most offended. Now who is taking the pi$$ here? He buys them for pennies, so why the massive price markup?
Now anyone knows you can buy a bucket of these things for hardly anything, so if shops want to exploit me, i would rather walk away.
Thats why shops will implode, not because i complain about it.

 

[Steve Austin]

Cyclists have to decide what they want: We can either have local bike shops that are viable businesses and can invest in training and staff to offer a good service, or we can have 'pile them high - sell it cheap by monkeys' type shops (either physical shops or on the internet) with no other interest than providing the lowest possible price.

Not looking for a row, but isn't that what we got anyway? MY LBS holds very little stock, so anything i could possibly want, he has to order. CRC, Ribble, etc etc display what they have in stock, deliver in 24 hours and charge less for the privilege. Its a buyers market i'm afraid. Retail is on its arse and its not just the Bike shops.

 

[hubgearfreak]

I don't think thats very fair.

then i challenge you to look around at what a landlord demands for a shop. then ask the city council how much they want. and wonder what you'd want as a skilled mechanic with customer service skills. add insurance, electricity and endless other drains on your sales income and tell me what your hourly rate would be, assuming that you're not busy repairing 100% of the time. that you want some holidays and days off, so you'd need someone else with mechanical knowledge, good customer skills and who is reliable. demonstrate your workings out. go on, work it out

 

[Steve Austin]

no i won't. £15 for a ten minute job is a rip off. that is the answer.


and where did replacing a spoke need a qualified bike mechanic? Fixing bikes is like playing with meccano. it is not 'skilled' in any shape or form. the only thing that abike mechanic might training in is fixing suspension or fixing hydraulici disc brakes.
building wheels is a doddle

 

[Renard]

Last time I had one replaced cost me a fiver. That was about three years ago though.