Easy job? Spokes

Stephen Clark said:

I have lost three spokes on the non-freewheel side of my road/tourer bike.
Is it a trivial task to replace them? I can do simple stuff like punctures,
chain removal/cleaning and brake block replacement but for anything beyond
this I usually go to the LBS. I have a "nipple spanner" since I sometimes
need to re-tension the spokes.

Not trivial, but reasonably straightforward, particularly if you
already have some experience with a spoke key.

You'll need replacement spokes of the correct length (LBS can help
with that), and also matching nipples.

Strip the tube and tyre from the wheel, thread the new spokes into the
correct position and screw them into the new nipples. Bring them all
up to proper tension, referring to other spokes as a guide, true the
wheel and stress relieve the new spokes.

It's not quite that simple, it takes a little care and some time to do
properly if you aren't an experienced wheelbuilder, but I can manage
it so I think most people will too.

Read Sheldon's excellent guide to wheelbuilding, and apply that to the
installation of just those new spokes that you need:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

"Bob"
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in message <[email hidden]>, Stephen Clark

(') said:

I have lost three spokes on the non-freewheel side of my road/tourer
bike. Is it a trivial task to replace them? I can do simple stuff like
punctures, chain removal/cleaning and brake block replacement but for
anything beyond this I usually go to the LBS. I have a "nipple spanner"
since I sometimes need to re-tension the spokes.

If they're non-drive-side, and you're confident enough to true your
wheels, replacing spokes will be a breeze. Make sure you get the right
length is all.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

Morning had broken. I found a rather battered tube of Araldite
resin in the bottom of the toolbag.

At Sun, 10 Jul 2005 13:47:28 +0100, message
<[email hidden]> was posted by "Stephen Clark"
<[email hidden]>, including some, all or none of the following:

Quoted message said:

I have lost three spokes on the non-freewheel side of my road/tourer bike.
Is it a trivial task to replace them? I can do simple stuff like punctures,
chain removal/cleaning and brake block replacement but for anything beyond
this I usually go to the LBS. I have a "nipple spanner" since I sometimes
need to re-tension the spokes.

Tolerably so, yes, but three breakages probably means there is a more
serious problem with the wheel, so you should also make sure that all
the spokes are correctly tensioned and stress-relieved. My
wheelbuilder is so cheap that I have never bothered to learn the
necessary skills (Bob Bristow, Reading's premier blind bike mechanic,
trivia fans); I send all machine-built wheels off to Bob to be
retensioned by hand, and have only ever broken one spoke, on the
'bent, where the angles are very tight and the tension unusually high.

Guy
--
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

"To every complex problem there is a solution which is
simple, neat and wrong" - HL Mencken