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[Curt]

Another front spoke broke today on the 16 FX. I'm not sure how, as I never take it off-road and that would be much worse abuse. It seems that the wheels are just really cheaply made.

A friend recommends I purchase a whole set of quality steel spokes and re-lace the rims. Has anyone tried that? Should I send them off to Buchanon Spokes and have them custom matched with American wire and nipples for $100-150.

[Crissa]

Once a wheel starts eating spokes, it's best to have a professional look at it, in my opinion.

-Crissa

[Curt]

Once a wheel starts eating spokes, it's best to have a professional look at it, in my opinion.

When this happened under warranty, the whole wheel was replaced. Now out of warranty, I'm not paying for another bad wheel.

I've never re-laced a wheel before. I'll get the custom spokes and see if I can find a wheel person at a reasonable price. If not, I'm willing to have a go at it. My friend plus me equals one professional.

[rayivers]

My '14 FX popped a front spoke after its 3rd ride (street only).  I was able to get the broken end out of the nipple and a new spoke into the hub with the wheel still on, and it's been fine ever since.  You may not be so lucky, but IMO it's at least worth a look.

[Fran K]

Is it the front or the rear?  My thinking is a rear needs the spokes more angled than radial, could be kind of design?

My technique is to take the bare rim with all spokes loose, position the rim using four spokes at 90 degrees apart (16 total), then tighten them all.

If you just break one spoke probably not applicable but I have heard talk if the wheel is run loose the hub and rim wear and it will be frustrating to get that set up to last.

[Mr T]

Curt, are you able to support the bike so you can get the wheel off the ground so you can spin it by hand? If so, checking the spokes will be a lot easier. The quick way to check the spokes is by tapping each spoke with something made of metal - a screwdriver will do - and listen to the sound. After you have struck several of them, you will know by sound if it is tight (higher pitch) or loose (lower pitch). There are spoke wrenches made to set the spokes to the proper inch/pounds and if you own a bike with spoke wheels, you should get one. I would send you mine but I loaned it out already and never got it back. But the tapping method will get you mostly there for a start. Spokes usually break if there is a loose one and it throws all the stress to the opposite side of the wheel. It also does not help if the spokes are too tight. Just go slow here because if you do tighten too much, you run the risk of breaking spokes and twisting the wheel. Good luck

[Curt]

My '14 FX popped a front spoke after its 3rd ride (street only).  I was able to get the broken end out of the nipple and a new spoke into the hub with the wheel still on, and it's been fine ever since.  You may not be so lucky, but IMO it's at least worth a look.

That's amazing you were able to do that Ray. My spoke actually broke off inside the nipple, and I don't think I could have gotten the broken piece out.

I kept riding with the missing spoke, and ordered a set (36 + 4 spare) from Buchanon. We bumped up the size from 10 gauge to 9 gauge for good measure. Unfortunately, they sent the wrong length. I took off another spoke and sent it to them as a sample. I should have them back Monday.

You made me realize I might have been able to extract a sample spoke without unmounting the wheel and tire, and could still be riding. Meanwhile, I got a Tusk truing stand and am in for quite a few hours of work.

[Curt]

Is it the front or the rear?  My thinking is a rear needs the spokes more angled than radial, could be kind of design?

My technique is to take the bare rim with all spokes loose, position the rim using four spokes at 90 degrees apart (16 total), then tighten them all.

If you just break one spoke probably not applicable but I have heard talk if the wheel is run loose the hub and rim wear and it will be frustrating to get that set up to last.

I've broken three FX spokes on two different bikes, always on the front during hard braking. My friend took out several spokes demoing an FX at a motocross track. It's nuts. In 15 years of trail and MX riding on Yamahas and KTMs and Hondas with dozens of riders, and I've never heard of any broken spoke incident.

Since I'm going to be fully re-lacing the wheel, your advice is appreciated. At this point I'm only watching YouTube tutorials. After it's tensioned and trued, I'll monitor it to make sure it all stays tight. I hear loose spokes cause broken spokes.

I'm hoping never to break a spoke on the rear wheel. If that happened, I'd probably order fat Buchanon spokes for the rear too -- assuming the front isn't too grueling.

[Crissa]

Better a spoke to break than the wheel, I suppose.  Gives you a chance to know something's gone wrong.

-Crissa

[Curt]

Curt, are you able to support the bike so you can get the wheel off the ground so you can spin it by hand? If so, checking the spokes will be a lot easier. The quick way to check the spokes is by tapping each spoke with something made of metal - a screwdriver will do - and listen to the sound. After you have struck several of them, you will know by sound if it is tight (higher pitch) or loose (lower pitch). There are spoke wrenches made to set the spokes to the proper inch/pounds and if you own a bike with spoke wheels, you should get one. I would send you mine but I loaned it out already and never got it back. But the tapping method will get you mostly there for a start. Spokes usually break if there is a loose one and it throws all the stress to the opposite side of the wheel. It also does not help if the spokes are too tight. Just go slow here because if you do tighten too much, you run the risk of breaking spokes and twisting the wheel. Good luck

You'd laugh at the way the FX is suspended, half on a stand, and half using a tie-down from the garage ceiling rafters. But it gets the job done. Even with the front battery removed, when I put the bike on the edge of the stand it is still too front-heavy to lift the front wheel off the ground.

I contemplated ordering the spoke torque wrench, but then I figured I've always done fine with the tapping method in the past. This may be the one and only wheel I ever have to re-lace. I have so far already invested in $265 in spokes and tools!

[rayivers]

That's amazing you were able to do that Ray. My spoke actually broke off inside the nipple, and I don't think I could have gotten the broken piece out.

Yes, I was amazed too.   Mine snapped right at the top of the nipple. I cut off the broken spoke end and Krazy-glued it to the broken stub, which lasted long enough to back it out 2-3 threads. I then grabbed it with needle-nose pliers and got it out.  I never thought I'd be able to snake the new spoke in, but I guess it was just one of those spoke positions that allowed that.

I've used Buchanan's, they make high-quality spokes and helped me out when I spec'd my custom ones slightly too long & needed them shortened.

[Curt]

I got the front wheel re-laced and trued with the 9 gauge Buchanan spokes. I'm pretty confident there will be no more broken ones!

[Shadow]

Good work there on lacing the spoke. I don't know much about it, however I did bookmark a pair of videos that may be helpful:

[Curt]

Shadow,

Thanks. I did watch those two videos, and a quite a few more. A few problems happen that most videos don't address.

One is that the rim got wavy from the bad factory lacing. So when I laced new spokes of identical lengths, some nipples showed no spoke threads while others showed many. The solution was to tighten spokes in order of the ones with the most spoke showing, NOT in the every-3, every-4, or every-5 method. Once they all show a similar number of threads, THEN proceed to the every-5 method.

I also ended up with the rim slightly too far to one side of the hub, with more threads showing on all the left side spokes than all the right side spokes. If I'd known, I could have avoided it, but it caused me to start over. Anyway, the brake caliper is apparently not too sensitive to this offset.

I wasn't sure of the nipple size and sensitive caliper reading, so I ordered a full set of 6 spoke wrench sizes from Motion Pro. None of them worked on either the Zero or my KTMs. That was annoying. I ended up using a small crescent wrench. It worked surprisingly well. To avoid rounding off the nipples, besides fitting the wrench tight at all times, it's necessary to keep the wrench close to the rim and never use it near the end of the nipple. I did round off one nipple discovering this, but I had ordered extra spokes+nipples (40 vs 36 required).

The Tusk truing stand worked great and I'm very happy with it. My wheel turned out balanced already and I didn't even have to move the original weights. Spoke tension is holding up fine, but I'll go around and tighten them after a while.