Unspeakable spokes
A cautionary tale from Phil Rhodes. While building his A65 front wheel, Phil had trouble getting the spokes tight without stripping in the nipples. The supplier apologised, saying they had manufactured a dodgy batch where the threads hadn’t been correctly rolled and they immediately replaced them. The wheel then went together perfectly well.
When he was ready to do the rear wheel, Phil chose a different supplier. A couple of nipples stripped, but that’s not that unusual; you used to get a few spares in every set, and after changing them the wheel assembled OK.
But five miles into its first run, the rear wheel collapsed with 23 spokes having pulled out. Luckily Phil was just pulling out of a junction when it happened – only seconds beforehand he’d been doing 50mph!
The spokes turned out to have originated from the same manufacturer who, this time, were less keen to admit a problem. Phil’s taking it further, but in the meanwhile says: “If I’ve had two sets, there must be others out there and I’d hate anyone to have a serious accident.”
Too right, Phil. Spoke threads are rolled, making the thread a larger diameter than the spoke itself. If the rolling is not done properly, the diameter will be too small.
Using a spoke key, anyone other than a gorilla should struggle to strip the thread; so if you’re having to go easy, you may have Phil’s problem. He’s going to keep me posted...
‘THE REAR WHEEL COLLAPSED WITH 23 SPOKES PULLED OUT