Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech My TBA has 4 front wheel spokes missing, questions

I had the bike looked at by a mechanic before purchase and he said it looked great besides the 4 front spokes gone but he didnt question it.

The bike has 900 miles and has pretty much sat in a garage since 2003 when it was bought.

Everyone who I talk to has said it is very odd that 4 spokes would be broke off. The owner said that when the weather got really cold then heated up it looked like 4 spokes popped off on one side so he pulled them off completely since they were only connected on one end. This sounds a bit odd to most ive talked to.

Whats your thoughts on this? I am going to get the front wheel off and send it to a place in California called Buchanons that specializes in this type of repair. With shipping and stuff it turns out being the same price as local repair shops.

my thoughts are dang. any story to sell a motorsickle. I had one of my rear wheel spoke nipples break. The spoke itself was fine. Scavenged a nipple off of a nos front wheel and I was riding again. I have no idea what caused the nipple to break. Fatigue I suppose. Now re your tale. 4 spokes missing is not acceptable. Sending your wheel off to Buchanan's Spoke & Rim, Inc is an excellent idea. They will fix it right up. And it will be higher quality spokes, nipples, and lacing tune than oem for sure. That is if your rim isn't fubar'ed already.

You need all the spokes for the wheel to be true.. otherwise you will have uneven tension from the side opposite where the spoke is missing. You could get lucky and have a situation where it does not cause any noticeable difference, or it could manifest itself as a slight wobble or feeling like the wheel is out of balance. I'd get them fixed before considering any serious riding on the bike. As for getting it fixed, if the local shop can handle it, I'd give them my business rather than shipping it out.. but that's just my personal preference of keeping the local shops in business when I get the chance. Since the price is the same, the only difference would be the potential for damage/loss in shipping.

Cheers,
Brad

I have a mechanic whose going to come out and take the wheel off and then ship it. I am just so confused about this now. The guy who i bought it from was family man, looked like he barely rode it and his wife wanted him to sell it. Nice house, nice garage. Bike has 900 miles and hes the original owner. I have his original title.

I will take a closer picture of the actual wheel later but for now this link has a picture that can give you an idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40216790@N05/?saved=1

Maybe he hit a curb or something? God I hope my bike isnt messed up in any other way.

I'm betting he had a low speed wreck, maybe a curb or something. Scared him off, and the spokes broke without him even noticing it.

dang man, looks brand new. Fix the rim and ride the heck out of her.
Mike

My memory is terrible, but spokes mysteriously "popping" on the older bikes seems to ring a bell. I'm sure it was mentioned on here in the olden days.
Anyway, if the front wheel hit something hard enough to break 4 spokes I would think other damage would be easily seen...
Also, Buchanan's is a well-known established business. I would imagine if they find anything else wrong they should let you know before they proceed.

Looks like you got yourself a good deal there. Welcome to the asylum.

How much do you think a complete wheel would cost?

Depends what you mean by complete. There's a wheel on ebay every now and then, I think there's a bare rim on there now also.
They even pop up for sale on here in the classifieds.

Bike Bandit shows it for $740.65 and that probably doesn't include bearings and seals....

Just bought mine, with an almost new tire on flea bay last month for 300 clams. Used wheels generally go for about $250, minus tire and brake disk.