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Bit of a problem here.
Today I threw my Trek into a tight corner at 30-ish MPH, and suddenly felt that the back was all over the place. Normally the bike will take that corner just fine at that speed, so it caught me off guard a bit.
Somehow I managed to regain control and continued riding home, but I felt that the wheel was out of true.
"No big deal", I thought. "that's probably a result of the bike's attempt to highside me."
I knew that the old "Innova" tyres (see picture below) were way past their expiration date, so figured that they had really died now.
As soon as I'd get home, I'd take them off, straighten the wheel and slap on a good set of modern rubber.
(at some places you can actually see the carcass, so some of these cracks are all the way through the rubber)
As I put the bike into the workstand, I noticed the wheel was more than 1/4" out of true. A quick inspection revealed why.
(I pulled it away from the hub for the pictures. At first glance you couldn't tell that there was anything wrong with the wheel)
I'll have the spoke replaced soon enough, but right now all the LBS'es are closed until Wednesday. However I really need the Trek for my work tomorrow and don't feel like putting the rear wheel from one of my Sbikes in there.
The other spokes feel and sound like they won't take too much extra tension anymore, so straightening the wheel by overtightening the other spokes is out of the question.
However if I remove the spoke behind the broken one (left of it in the 2nd picture), it should be straight (more or less) yet again.
So the million dollar question : If I remove the other spoke, would this wheel be safe for riding 40-ish miles?
FYI : 185lbs of rider, 38 lbs of bike and 25lbs of gear in the saddle bags, so close to 250lbs total, most of which rests on the back wheel.
The wheel was a 32h one, currently 31h and going for 30h if I'd remove the other spoke.
Today I threw my Trek into a tight corner at 30-ish MPH, and suddenly felt that the back was all over the place. Normally the bike will take that corner just fine at that speed, so it caught me off guard a bit.
Somehow I managed to regain control and continued riding home, but I felt that the wheel was out of true.
"No big deal", I thought. "that's probably a result of the bike's attempt to highside me."
I knew that the old "Innova" tyres (see picture below) were way past their expiration date, so figured that they had really died now.
As soon as I'd get home, I'd take them off, straighten the wheel and slap on a good set of modern rubber.
(at some places you can actually see the carcass, so some of these cracks are all the way through the rubber)
As I put the bike into the workstand, I noticed the wheel was more than 1/4" out of true. A quick inspection revealed why.
(I pulled it away from the hub for the pictures. At first glance you couldn't tell that there was anything wrong with the wheel)
I'll have the spoke replaced soon enough, but right now all the LBS'es are closed until Wednesday. However I really need the Trek for my work tomorrow and don't feel like putting the rear wheel from one of my Sbikes in there.
The other spokes feel and sound like they won't take too much extra tension anymore, so straightening the wheel by overtightening the other spokes is out of the question.
However if I remove the spoke behind the broken one (left of it in the 2nd picture), it should be straight (more or less) yet again.
So the million dollar question : If I remove the other spoke, would this wheel be safe for riding 40-ish miles?
FYI : 185lbs of rider, 38 lbs of bike and 25lbs of gear in the saddle bags, so close to 250lbs total, most of which rests on the back wheel.
The wheel was a 32h one, currently 31h and going for 30h if I'd remove the other spoke.
