2012 Super Tenere spoke came loose.

[PolInc92]

Hello all,

I recently discovered that one of my spokes had come loose on my rear wheel. It is wasn't loose when I had winterized it, but I took it out for a ride recently and noticed that there was a clinking sound when I moved the bike. The spoke had come loose and bent.

I need to purchase a new spoke and nipple. My local dealers only sell sets for $120. BuchananSpokes sell single spokes, but I am unsure about the length, gauge, and angle. I don't have the tools to measure the thickness of the the spoke.

Does anyone have this information handy? Any idea if they would be able to tell me if I sent them an email?

 

[OldRider]

This guy here has plenty for sale. His wife told me he was leaving on vacation next week and if anyone needed any spokes he would have to ship them out this week of it would be in about a month. https://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?threads/spokes-for-sale.21849/

 

[Don in Lodi]

This guy here has plenty for sale. His wife told me he was leaving on vacation next week and if anyone needed any spokes he would have to ship them out this week of it would be in about a month. https://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?threads/spokes-for-sale.21849/

LOL

 

[Checkswrecks]

Also don't forget to loosely safety wire or tie-wrap your spokes where they cross. Otherwise, a broken one swinging around can do serious damage to your swing-arm.

 

[RonH]

I've found wiring them not necessary if you make sure to check tension once in a while. Every 4000 miles each oil change is plenty often. Ping method is crap. If you use that, for sure wire or ziptie, do it with a torque wrench they won't fall off. Just my experience,

 

[PolInc92]

Also don't forget to loosely safety wire or tie-wrap your spokes where they cross.

I was planning on doing this soon as well as

do it with a torque wrench they won't fall off.

Which I meant to ask earlier, how does one tighten the spokes on the brake disc side? Do I have to remove the wheel and then remove the disc as well?

 

[Don in Lodi]

A five or six inch long 5mm ball end allen socket reaches in there fine. I just use a T handled ball ended allen every tire change. No torque numbers. This is on a '12 with 80,000 miles. I lost a nipple once years ago. Spoke was ok. Found an empty hole five or six months ago, no idea when or where on that one.

 

[Gigitt]

I use a the long end of 5mm alan key.
i chop the short end off then use the long shank in a small 1/4in socket and some extensions.
I use a Wheeler FAT wrench to set the torque.
Tip: tape all the bits together with some electrical tape so they dont keep slipping apart.

3/8in socket is too fat for just that one side of the wheel.

 

[PolInc92]

Awesome. Thanks for the suggestions. Adding tightening the spokes to the to-do list. Glad I fell into another good community after selling my KLR.

Sent from my S60 using Tapatalk

 

[HeliMark]

Lowe's carries the 5" or 6" (don't remember the exact length), 5mm ball end 3/8 socket. That length works with my 3/8 torque wrench.

 

[Marty]

I've found wiring them not necessary if you make sure to check tension once in a while. Every 4000 miles each oil change is plenty often. Ping method is crap. If you use that, for sure wire or ziptie, do it with a torque wrench they won't fall off. Just my experience,

I have found that even cking them every other fuel stop is not often enough to prevent a failure. In my experience the spokes will "break" on the rear drive side even when the bike is use exclusively on the road. I once set the bike on the center stand to fuel and had 2 broken spokes fall and hit the ground. They were fractured at the bend that hooks into the rim. I suspect that they are not up to handling the torque of the drive in lower gears. I base that on my experience of spokes failing while riding twisty technical roads with lots of lower gear corner exit drives. I also have friends who have never had a spoke come loose or break.

I think that it is important to keep the spokes all torqued to the same spec so that the load is shared. Of course you have to be careful not to pull the rim out of true when doing this. IMO the design of the wheels is the worst part of an otherwise brilliant bike.

 

[RonH]

I still like the design, and will again say, be sure and use a good quality torque wrench to check them. The torque is only 4.3 ft/lb, 50 in/lb. Even a good torque wrench is only rated accurate at 20% and up of scale, so you need about a 240 in/lb (20 ft/lb) maximum torque wrench to do the correct reliable check and even then you're working close to the low end of the calibration range. Ping will not cut it.

 

[Marty]

I still like the design, and will again say, be sure and use a good quality torque wrench to check them. The torque is only 4.3 ft/lb, 50 in/lb. Even a good torque wrench is only rated accurate at 20% and up of scale, so you need about a 240 in/lb (20 ft/lb) maximum torque wrench to do the correct reliable check and even then you're working close to the low end of the calibration range. Ping will not cut it.

I use a very small beam type torque wrench. 50 in/lb is about 80% of its max. I am extremely confident in saying that no amount of maintenance will prevent spokes from breaking even when the bike is used in a lighter duty situation than any adv bike should reasonably be deigned for. I don't think that broken spokes under light duty use = a well designed wheel. I do realize that some people have no issues with the spokes, but whole hell of a lot of people do. Way more so that other bikes with spoke wheels.

 

[Don in Lodi]

There's what I see is the trouble with the generic 'lost spokes'. For my one loss that I saw first hand it was a loose nipple, the nipple may still have been in the hub, found it in the driveway later, spoke got bent. Any close calls I've had over the years was a nipple backing off some. The last one that just magically went away could have been a break., unknowable. The earliest reports that I recall were lost nipples. It just feels like a break might be a different issue, too much tension vs not enough somehow. A torque number is all well and good, it just seems like some spokes are getting too tight out there. The initial torque on the spokes at the first build puts a stretch on the spoke. To go over them again and again with a torque wrench just seems like they're getting stretched over and over. Even a 7/16" head bolt will stretch and break if torqued over and over again. Some systems use what we jokingly call stretchy bolts. Put a torque spec on, then add 90-180 degrees of additional torque. Metal fatigue is very real, we never re-use head bolts. Maybe we shouldn't be re-torquing spokes over and over again either.