[CR]Sturmey Hub Spoke breakage

(Example: Component Manufacturers:Chater-Lea)

From: "cmontgomery" <cmontgomery15@cox.net>
To: "ClassicRendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:07:50 -0700
Subject: [CR]Sturmey Hub Spoke breakage

Broke a spoke, at the head, on my TF, about 6 months after it was built up. Commuted, with 20 pound loads, and I'm a load. Did a saddlebagged motel tour and an overnight camptour on dirt. Seems like this should not have happened on a reasonably fresh wheel like this. I've got fixed hubs with tougher miles on them almost 2 decades old. Something's awry. I figured maybe it was a fluke spoke. Or maybe because it was built with straight guage instead of double-butted. Then Doug, my wheel building guy, suggested it might be those thin steel flanges cutting into spokes made for thicker alloy hub flanges. Now there's an interesting thought. Were spokes made differently 70 years ago? Anybody else experience a spoke break like this on a Sturmey hub?

Craig Montgomery in Tucson-about to go test this thing on another motel tour.