Author Topic: Fiberfix Spoke  (Read 8978 times)

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Offline pmac

Fiberfix Spoke
« on: May 10, 2012, 02:22:40 pm »
Anybody ever use a fiberfix replacement spoke?  I'll be on a portion the GD this summer and I'm a little bit concerned about a rear wheel busted spoke on the drive side.  I think this should work as a temp measure for 50-100 miles, and maybe longer, without taking off the cassette, but I'm curious if anyone has real life experience with using one.

Offline staehpj1

Re: Fiberfix Spoke
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2012, 02:26:51 pm »
No, but may I suggest just carrying a Unior cassette cracker and some real spokes.  The Unior is fairly cheap, weighs under an ounce, and works well.

Offline John Nelson

Re: Fiberfix Spoke
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2012, 04:12:00 pm »
Yes, I've used them. In fact, I've used the same one three times. They work well. I've ridden as much as 80 miles at a time with one, but I always replace it with a real spoke when I get home. I find it helps to temporarily loosen the spokes on either side while you're putting it in. That helps with getting the FiberFix tight enough. Then you can retighten the spokes you temporarily loosened. It trues up the wheel really well.

Offline Wuwei

Re: Fiberfix Spoke
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2012, 09:05:08 pm »
You can always get a 48-spoke wheel hand built and never have to worry about a broken spoke. Even if one does break, the wheel won't go out of true.

Offline staehpj1

Re: Fiberfix Spoke
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2012, 07:20:14 am »
They work well. I've ridden as much as 80 miles at a time with one, but I always replace it with a real spoke when I get home.
I am a bit confused.  You have ridden 80 miles on one and you replace the spoke when you get home.  Do you mean when you get to the end of the day or have you not used one in the middle of a multi-day tour.

My feeling is that since it takes maybe 15 minutes to replace a broken spoke with a real one I'd just as soon just do that right off the bat.  Just one way to look at it though.  I personally tend to think the fiberfix might involve almost as much fiddling around as just replacing the spoke with a real one (which is really a pretty straight forward operation).

BTW, I've found that while building wheels it helps greatly to have exactly the correct sized spoke, but on every one of the bikes I have toured on it was possible to carry one sized spare that would work for all three spoke types on the bike.  They just need to be long enough to engage a few threads when replacing the longer spokes and not poke all the way to the tube when replacing the shorter ones.

Offline John Nelson

Re: Fiberfix Spoke
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2012, 09:52:31 am »
I am a bit confused.  You have ridden 80 miles on one and you replace the spoke when you get home.  Do you mean when you get to the end of the day or have you not used one in the middle of a multi-day tour.
The latter.

Offline staehpj1

Re: Fiberfix Spoke
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2012, 10:27:42 am »
I am a bit confused.  You have ridden 80 miles on one and you replace the spoke when you get home.  Do you mean when you get to the end of the day or have you not used one in the middle of a multi-day tour.
The latter.
Thanks for clarifying.