Broken spokes -> NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE!!!

[Wisedrum]

That's a shame that happened.

Spoke breakage is not common but not rare either. The early Bonnevilles 2000-2003 had the issue so often the forums were asking for a recall. It happened to my 2003 Centenial Edition Bonnie as well. I went around a left hander and felt a pop, then more pops and the back end got all wobbly. Had probably a dozen or so broken spokes all together. Triumph thankfully paid for a new wheel.

Right now there is a internet blog of a guy on a BMW GS who's front wheel spokes all disintegrated on him. More reports of similar problems followed. They are wanting a recall on BMW spoked wheels.

Spokes are like the span of a bridge. EAch spoke shares and spreads the pressure between them. If one spoke goes, that puts extra pressure on the remaining spokes, which end up flexing more than they are designed and then another breaks, putting even more pressure on the remaining spokes. pretty soon it's a lost cause and most break.

Spokes look good, they flex making the ride softer, but they also sometimes break.

Had the same experience with the rear wheel of my Kawa LTD 750 Twin. I bought the bike 1998, build in 1983, as a used one and when it was over 20 years old nearly all spokes broke on a ride with two up. All were too much rusted. I managed to ride the Kawa home very slowly and it felt like riding on eggs....not so amusing.

Afterwards I bought a fitting intact used wheel for the LTD, which I found on ebay.

And than later I changed the Kawa for a W650 and so on, also having spoke wheels but never had in issue with them again. Also not with my following W800 and the Bullet. But in my youth they were present with a Velosolex and a Hercules 100 only to name a few. So to say common problems.

I'm glad that my CB has wheels I don't have to worry about. They probably will last forever, may spoke wheels look better or not. They do.

Wisedrum

[pekingduck]

Any idea how many miles on the bike?

You can see at least 2 nipples with the spokes missing and one spoke dangling from the hub, so I suspect spokes had been been loose, wearing the threads and pulling out, rather than a sudden spontaneous failure at the bend of the spokes.

It would be interesting to see if a new spoke would hold in the threads of those nipples.

[Riko_imp]

owner got back to me on whatsapp, where he shared the video too

As expected, before almost every ride he inspects his bike, not always, but mostly.
Also not alwasy with tools.
But he didn't pay particular attention to the spokes.

That said, the bike only had around 50.000 kilometers.
He also said, while he is in love with the bike and the looks and all, he is dissapointed about build quality, not being as good as on his older CB750 from '90-'00....
His older bikes didnt have spokes.

He said, its something that should never happen from a Honda of 5 years old with only 50K kilometers that was maintained.

I assume the spokes havent been checked in those 5 years and 50.000km and perhaps something was off at some point, but thats my personal thought..

[GoldOxide_imp]

Isn't that a bit hash, GO? Surely it's in the nature of spokes to fail from time to time. They're slender little things and there's lots of them on every wheel. One gets out of kilter and then the process Ferret describes follows. It's a good reason not to have them, I reckon.

This is not a rant.

Wasn't thinking it was harsh. We [humanity] have the ability to take something as spokes and improve on their reliability and maintenance. Yes, if [lack of] maintenance is the source of spoke failure, then that is outside the scope of this context.

However, if companies like BMW are going to re-engineer spoke wheels differently for aesthetic effect, I would assume extra care would be applied to adapt better design practices. I think they probably did. Certainly it appears adjusting the spoke tension on a BMW appears quite convenient with a twist at the hub. Of course, there is still the procedure of how to properly adjust spoke tension and would assume that is documented in the owner's manual or referenced elsewhere for the owner to review if they wish.

I like the look of spokes, even BMW's. I have less regard to any marginal engineering that might compromise safety or the maintenance associated with safety. If the new mousetrap isn't better, don't use it.

So back to an earlier statement: If a few fail, the remaining ought to be engineered to resume some level of safety for an unknown amount of use. I think that is the case. However, a cascade failure requires multiple things to go wrong - possibly related to maintenance. I suspect a spoke failure or two would alert the rider hopefully sooner than later than complete wheel failure is imminent. That warning might look like strange wheel sounds and clanging of a sort. Maybe there is room for improvement in this area?

[Bazbro_imp]

As far as I know, spokes don't hold UP the hub - the hub HANGS from the top of the wheel. It's therefore easy to check spoke condition as well as tension. As the wheel is slowly turned, look at each spoke for corrosion/damage, etc., and then gently tap each spoke in a methodical manner with something metal, like a screwdriver. Correctly-tensioned ones will "ring", whilst looser ones won't - they'll just give a dull "thunk". I personally wouldn't recommend then going ahead and loosening/tightening any spokes you think are defective - there's a lot more to wheel-building than that! But what this can do is provoke you into mentioning it to your workshop and getting the offending spokes adjusted.

[Riko_imp]

update here as well, spokes were checked at 43.000 km according to the owner, just told me

if anything, makes matters weird, since thats not negligence from the owner anymore

and I know the mechanic...if he has one speciality, its classic honda's which this retro technically is not maybe, but the spokers are from the same category = oldskool

bad quality?

[Lord Popgun]

I think bad quality is a possibility. I also wonder if after all the stress cycles one failed and like Max said, a cascade failure followed.

[GoldOxide_imp]

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf748EBEgLE]Stainless Steel Spokes Compared to Carbon Steel Spokes

... is a short, easy watch.

[peterbaron]

Very educative, thanks GO

[alprider]

look here what has changed from 2014 to 2017 model (rearweehl)

https://youtu.be/PCMNT1VlszM?t=690
https://youtu.be/hNOCYoK-GDo?t=379

and this short clip..i dont know...did these spokes break all together at the same time?..bcos i think you feel step by step if comes somthing nomore like usually (butt sensitiveness)...for example too if you lose air in the tire specially the curvefeeling becomes strange...