←
→
damerell: (cycling)
Add MemoryShare This Entry

Kevlar emergency spokes

posted by [personal profile] damerell at 08:28am on 14/01/2008
Fiberfix emergency spokes are back in production; the idea being that if you break a spoke on the road, you can glom one of these Kevlar stretchies into place and fix the wheel up temporarily without needing to wrestle off cassettes etc.

However, they only seem to be available in the USA, so I thought I'd ask if any cycling friends want some before ordering, to save on P&P. They look to be about 10 American pesos^W dollars each, and are allegedly reuseable.

ETA: I have never used one. I have never _seen_ one. Sheldon seems to think they work to get you home.
←
→
There are 15 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
emperor: (Default)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] emperor at 09:23am on 14/01/2008
Are they any good? Or do they only help if you have nothing in your panniers and cycle at 10mph on flat smooth roads...
[link] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] naath.livejournal.com at 11:10am on 14/01/2008
It'd be hard for them to be worse that "do nothing and see what happens" which I managed to do for about a month without rendering the bike impossible to ride.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] damerell.livejournal.com at 11:29am on 14/01/2008
I have never used one. Sheldon et al seem to think they suffice as a get-you-home solution.
[link] [parent] [reply]
juliet: (bike fixed)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] juliet at 09:24am on 14/01/2008
Do they actually *work*, do you know?
[link] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] damerell.livejournal.com at 11:30am on 14/01/2008
I am starting to think I should edit the post.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/ at 02:37pm on 14/01/2008
Do they work if you have the sort of wheel with minimal spokes, 6-8, not the more common number?
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] damerell.livejournal.com at 02:39pm on 14/01/2008
No, the reciprocrating swivel will slide up the knurled shaft and intersect teh path of the 3/8" cam attachment.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] damerell.livejournal.com at 12:15pm on 18/01/2008
Ahem. Sorry. I was getting fed up with all the "do they work". I still don't know. Spoke tensions are much higher in such a wheel and they're the very devil to true by hand and they often have fru-fru spoke attachment mechanisms, so I doubt it.
[link] [parent] [reply]
lnr: Halloween 2023 (Default)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] lnr at 12:46pm on 14/01/2008
Last time I broke a spoke I only realised once the wheel got bent, and then I noticed the wheel being bent and checked...

For those of us who ride bikes but aren't very technical how bad is it to ride a bike with a broken spoke?
[link] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] damerell.livejournal.com at 12:47pm on 14/01/2008
It tends to promote breaking of adjacent spokes, and if the wheel gets enough out of true it rubs the brakes...
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] drj11.livejournal.com at 05:49pm on 14/01/2008
Bad. Bust tyre, more spokes, wheel, rear changer, etc, etc.
[link] [parent] [reply]
juliet: (bike fixed)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] juliet at 12:05pm on 18/01/2008
Not very, but should be fixed soonish. And you'll want to retrue the wheel around the broken spoke. My friend had a spoke break halfway through a 600k & I'm pretty sure we just retrued the wheel & kept going.
[link] [parent] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] drj11.livejournal.com at 05:51pm on 14/01/2008
From the days when I actually used to ride a bike I remember a roadside spoke replacement as one of the joys of cycling. Separates the men from the boys, that sort of thing.
[link] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] sesquipedality.livejournal.com at 06:42pm on 14/01/2008
I have never broken a spoke. How likely is it?
[link] [reply]
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] damerell.livejournal.com at 09:09pm on 14/01/2008
"It depends" - very useful.

It depends on the quality of the wheel build - handbuilt wheels at a high tension are more reliable - the load placed on the wheel (higher on the rear, typically), the number of spokes (more is better), the quality of the metal and manufacture of the spokes (less of an issue these days, because metallurgy has ensured that even cheap spokes are of a high standard), the dish (the asymmetricity of the hub flanges - symmetrical is good but harder to do with many-speed derailleur arrangements) and - obviously - the number of miles travelled.

Since rear wheels are more heavily loaded and usually dished, they break many more spokes. The old British arrangement was 32 front cross 2 [1] and 40 rear cross 3 which is terribly clever because it distributes the spokes in proportion to the load and if the hub dimensions are about right they end up the same length and you only have one size of spare. These days 36 is the normal number on solid touring wheels - any more gets you into expensive tandem parts, up to 48.

The main factor I don't know about your bike is whether it has a hub gear or not. Internally gear hubs are undished or only slightly dished so make for reliable spokes. But with the quality of material on all but the cheapest wheels and the fact that machine-built wheels (while inferior to hand-built) are BALGE these days, someone who doesn't ride long distances might never break a spoke. I've only broken two ever, and one of those was on the tandem which is a special case.

[1] ie, each spoke crosses 2 otheres between hub and rim.
[link] [parent] [reply]

April

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
    1
 
 2
 
 3
 
 4
 
 5
 
6
 
 7
 
 8
 
 9
 
 10
1
 11
 
 12
 
13
 
 14
1
 15
 
 16
 
 17
 
 18
 
 19
 
20
 
 21
 
 22
 
 23
 
 24
 
 25
 
 26
 
27
 
 28
 
 29
 
 30