I’ve been on a racing (training) hiatus as my kids have been growing up.
I might have trashed my HED Jet 60/90 wheels a few years ago when I started just using them to train on for a half. I’m 230lbs and the 90 was a stallion build. They had two spokes that broke during that time. I had them fixed both times but never used them again. About 1 1/2 years ago I went into the basement garage where they had been sitting and half the spokes on both wheels were snapped in the middle. I’ve had some crazy issues with humidity and rust down there around the same time. I have no idea how that happened, but have read that it has happened before. The spokes seem so flimsy when I touch them.
My question is since I think these were $1400 12 years ago new and I think they are true are these fixable? I’m not sure what a shop would charge to do all of that. I believe the first spoke repair at the shot they didn’t torque it down properly, because the next repair the guy point out how the hub had gouged out and eventually could just freespin. I know that is a bad description of parts. Maybe replacing is a better option?
I’ve been riding the same 2009 P2SL this whole time and have thought about upgrading, but continue to hesitate since it was a rocket for me for quite awhile. Quite a bit of rust on screwheads from sweat, Di2 looks intriguing, don’t care about disc brakes.
If anyone has any suggestions outside of this being fixable for a clydesdale it would be much appreciated? Are HED 3s bulletproof for heavier riders? Or should I just avoid all the deep rim stuff? I don’t know how much those wheels helped versus me just not being in as good a shape recently when I road on the stock wheels for a race, but I felt much slower and the time backed that up.
You could buy the equipment to replace the spokes yourself. It’s actually pretty fun, and there are plenty of online resources. If you can harvest a couple existing spokes and measure them, you wouldn’t have to do the guessing/spoke calculations. I’ve been thinking about replacing the spokes on my 10 year old Flo wheels…may also upgrade the hubs and put some flashy oil slick aero spokes on it!
Get them respoked with good quality stainless steel spokes and brass nipples. Inspect the hub flanges and spoke holes for any possible damage or cracking.
If it’s a 10 speed freehub then find a cassette with most of the sprockets riveted together rather than loose - SRAM will be a tighter fit with less play than shimano.
Interesting that the spokes split in the middle - I’m assuming this is a result of fatigue accelerated by a poor storage environment.
You could buy the equipment to replace the spokes yourself. It’s actually pretty fun, and there are plenty of online resources. If you can harvest a couple existing spokes and measure them, you wouldn’t have to do the guessing/spoke calculations. I’ve been thinking about replacing the spokes on my 10 year old Flo wheels…may also upgrade the hubs and put some flashy oil slick aero spokes on it!
Yes it is fun. I have just learned how to build wheels and replaced a couple rims and built two wheel sets. But my kids are grown. Replacing spokes might be a deep dive for someone with kids and job and who is just getting back into training.
For someone with good mechanical skills starting from scratch to replace spokes and wheels, I’d budget at least 5-10 hours (minimum) for wheel building reading time, tool and part research and ordering, and then actual spoke replacement and truing, and tensioning. A solid truing stand and tension meter will cost about $500. While it can be done with the wheel in the frame and plucking the spokes to gauge tension, that is a much harder project.
Wheel building is is among the more difficult bike maintenance projects. I’d recommend that before anyone try to replace spokes or build a wheel that they first develop skill in truing up their current wheels. For some, wheel truing might be frustrating and difficult as it is a slow, incremental, and iterative process. For a newly laced wheel it is even slower as you gradually increase spoke tension, while adjusting, over and over, (1) radial trueness, (2) lateral trueness, and (3) dish.
I just wanted to add that it is relatively rare for spokes to break in the middle unless they were damaged by something or had a pre existing flaw. And, you can replace just the freehub body (the part the cassette goes on) if you want.
I’d have them rebuilt and look at a new set of hubs if you even suspect the flanges.
You’re about to buy spokes, so it’s an ideal time to replace the hubs. You’ve already got the stallion build. It’ll be the cheapest route to getting back into training and racing by using the kit you have.