Bicycles Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who build and repair bicycles, people who train cycling, or commute on bicycles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Truing a wheel and lacing spokes is a big deal, requires a truing stand and everything. I know some do it without tool just with the spoke wrench and the naked eye, but feels like a big deal to me.
When one breaks a spoke, I believe it is safe to say the wheel is out of true within a few meters.
The question therefore is: is it worth it carrying spare spokes when touring longer distances (200+ km)?
Truing a wheel and lacing spokes is a big deal, but even a novice like me can replace a spoke and get it good enough to ride if a single spoke breaks. Unless you have a really low spoke count (which seems unlikely on a tour), breaking a single spoke shouldn't make the wheel unrideable and replacing the spoke can improve things and prevent them from getting worse.
Spokes are light and can be slipped down the edge of a bag or taped to a tube.
Things are made a little more complicated if the broken spoke is next to your disc or cassette. If so you may not have space to lace the new one in. In that case you'll need the tools and expertise to remove the disc or cassette too.
I've heard you can often get away without a spoke or two if you adjust the adjacent ones (loosen on opposite side to broken one, tighten on same side). This isn't a long-term solution, but may be good enough to get you home.
It's pretty easy/light to carry around a couple extra spokes per wheel and a pretty good idea for a long tour. You'll probably need a few different lengths though for the front, rear left, and rear right sides.
Another good option is to carry an emergency fiberfix spoke that can be used with most wheels, which will help in an emergency.
http://www.amazon.com/FiberFix-Emergency-Spoke-Replacement-Kit/dp/B001GSMQZC
You may want to work on your skills with truing a wheel without a stand as well. You can use a couple zip ties on your seat stays in place of a truing stand. Just make sure you are comfortable with this process before you go on the road, and don't forget your spoke wrench. You may need a cassette tool / chain whip as well if you need to replace a spoke on that side of the rear wheel.
You want definitely want to be able to replace a broken spoke or nipple while on tour, as riding a wheel missing a spoke any significant distance, especially with the bike fully loaded, can stress other spokes and lead to cascading failures. By Murphy's law, any such failure is guaranteed to happen at the maximum possible distance from a bike store.
You don't need to get the wheel perfectly trued, just in decent enough shape that it isn't interfering with your brake pads. Just tighter or loosen the new spoke until the wheel's aligned.
You can keep a few spokes and nipples jammed up your seatpost with a ball of tape or the like.
When I was a student, I used to re-lace and true wheels using the bike upside-down as the truing stand.
When touring, I carry a few spare spokes, and true by eye. It's better than riding a loaded bike on a twisted wheel.
It depends on the tour length. It seems worthless to me to take them for three hours of riding in local park/forest (as pretty much anything beside multitool, purse and hydropack), but good idea for whole day length trip trough the desert.
