Jim Junkie
Used to sell drugs, now he just takes them
Went to ride home from work yesterday and came down to a bike with a flat tire. Not unheard of as I quite often collect a thorn / thumb tack / other sharp object in the tire on the commute and get a slow leak. However, upon pulling the tire off, I noticed this:
. For context, the wheels are on my gravel bike commuter and are Spank Flare 24 OC rims with DT Swiss Comp spokes into Hope Pro 4 hubs. Mileage is about 6000km at this point.
Now, I had noticed a hairline crack at one nipple a few weeks back (and neglected to do anything about it), however this was obviously far progressed from that. Closer inspection also revealed it was happening to varying degrees at 4 other spokes as well, all drive side rear. The worse cases have resulted in some minor buckling of the rim as well it would seem.
Now, my first inclination at this point was over-tensioned spokes and a obligatory visit for me to the confessions thread (this may still happen). I built these wheels (with only sparing use of a tension meter ), I alone ride of them (roughly, with a heavy me and a heavy load), so any fuck-up responsibilty lies squarely with me. So the first stop was to get the tension meter out and see just how badly I got the tension wrong.
Turns out, it's all bang on or just under Spank's recommended 110-120 kg.f with vary little variance, although the damaged ones are reading a little lower (I assume because of some tension released with the deformation). I also don't exceed maximum tyre pressures either (although do tend to operate at or near the 70psi limit).
So what have I done wrong here? Am I too heavy? Total ride weight can get up there, with me at 90+ kg and cargo can get up around 20kg (although mostly around 5). I do occassionally due abusive things to it, like riding stairs & stuff, but not what I would consider beyond normal shenanigans. I'm still leaning towards it being an error in the build, but I'm just not sure what at this point. I'm going to build a fresh one with the same rim, so it would be good to know what the hell I've screwed up to avoid the same mistake again.
. For context, the wheels are on my gravel bike commuter and are Spank Flare 24 OC rims with DT Swiss Comp spokes into Hope Pro 4 hubs. Mileage is about 6000km at this point.
Now, I had noticed a hairline crack at one nipple a few weeks back (and neglected to do anything about it), however this was obviously far progressed from that. Closer inspection also revealed it was happening to varying degrees at 4 other spokes as well, all drive side rear. The worse cases have resulted in some minor buckling of the rim as well it would seem.
Now, my first inclination at this point was over-tensioned spokes and a obligatory visit for me to the confessions thread (this may still happen). I built these wheels (with only sparing use of a tension meter ), I alone ride of them (roughly, with a heavy me and a heavy load), so any fuck-up responsibilty lies squarely with me. So the first stop was to get the tension meter out and see just how badly I got the tension wrong.
Turns out, it's all bang on or just under Spank's recommended 110-120 kg.f with vary little variance, although the damaged ones are reading a little lower (I assume because of some tension released with the deformation). I also don't exceed maximum tyre pressures either (although do tend to operate at or near the 70psi limit).
So what have I done wrong here? Am I too heavy? Total ride weight can get up there, with me at 90+ kg and cargo can get up around 20kg (although mostly around 5). I do occassionally due abusive things to it, like riding stairs & stuff, but not what I would consider beyond normal shenanigans. I'm still leaning towards it being an error in the build, but I'm just not sure what at this point. I'm going to build a fresh one with the same rim, so it would be good to know what the hell I've screwed up to avoid the same mistake again.