Topic: Changing one spoke

[Garage_guy_chris]

Hey guys while I was cleaning the bike I found a loose spoke and tried to snug it up, when i did it snapped. I checked every other spoke and didn't find any other issues so Im gonna need to replace just the one spoke.

What needs to be done to replace just the one spoke? 

[Flyin900]

Remove the tire and replace the rim strip. Replace the spoke and it may be worth checking the rim for runout. I usually have my local shop handle that stuff with dropping the wheels off there.

You may find the rim/spoke nipples are rusted under the rim strip and hence the breakage when you tried to tighten it up.

The guy I use removes the tire and I pick up the rim and do the general clean up of all the rust and shoot each nipple with a release agent and check that each spoke can be adjusted. Drop the rim back off and he trues and remounts the tire with a new rim strip and tube (supplied by me) and balances.

Cash is king and he charges a very reasonable rate for me doing the grunt work.

[disco]

Hi Chris,
There are 2 types of spokes ie 'inners' & 'outers'. If your broken spoke is one that feeds in from the inside of hub, then it's easily replaced. If however it feeds from outside the hub, then you'll have a bigger problem. You'll need to remove more spokes in order to be able to turn the new one into position.