Do your spokes break with a hub motor?

[Caph]

I was chatting to someone at the Raleigh event last week and they said they'd had multiple spokes snap on their rear hub motor bike. I haven't had one break on any of my three front hub motor bikes in over 10 years.

That got me thinking. Is spoke breakage more likely in a rear hub motor drive due to the additional weight being applied to the rear wheel? If I ever ask too much of my front hub motor it spins out which maybe prevents undue torque being applied to the spokes?

Has anyone else had spokes snap in a hub motor and if so was it front or rear?

 

[mike killay]

When you think of motor bikes, you realise that the rather meagre power of our electric motors should not break spokes.
Perhaps those who do get broken spokes should fit thicker ones.

 

[LeighPing]

Look @ 01:30 & 02:15 in this video. We've thrown ours around, for well over 15 months now, and it has a big heavy motor. The spokes have been fine.. so far.

 

[falmouthtony]

I certainly had issues (at 15 stone at the time!) with a factory supplied rear wheel with laced in motor.
All most satisfactorily resolved eventually with a professional wheel rebuild by a top notch old school guy in the UK.

 

[Wicky]

Not on my KTM eRace 29 P

 

[mike killay]

Problem is that we have pseudo motor bikes fitted with light weight bike components.
In the future, I expect that we will see stronger, non- racing bike components
Just look at the Spartament, no fiddling around with under specced bike components

 

[mike killay]

 

[flecc]

No, this one carries heavy rear weights and tows a large trailer. The wheel is built with standard 14 gauge spokes and is heavily dished, but has never suffered a broken spoke.
.

 

[Danidl]

I was chatting to someone at the Raleigh event last week and they said they'd had multiple spokes snap on their rear hub motor bike. I haven't had one break on any of my three front hub motor bikes in over 10 years.

That got me thinking. Is spoke breakage more likely in a rear hub motor drive due to the additional weight being applied to the rear wheel? If I ever ask too much of my front hub motor it spins out which maybe prevents undue torque being applied to the spokes?

Has anyone else had spokes snap in a hub motor and if so was it front or rear?

... On a 20 inch hub motored ebike , I did have a number of spoke failures, I would have put them down to heavy usage e.g climbing on and off footpaths . Additionally with a small wheel diameter and a relatively large hub the spokes are very short and may not have the opportunity to flex, but my failures were over a 4 year period before it got bad enough to get them repaired

 

[anotherkiwi]

No, not in the 3600 km so far. I did tighten them after about 100 km and never had an issue after. Mxus rear motor in hard tail frame, Michelin City 26 x 1.95 tyres. This motor wheel will be going into another frame later in the year.

 

[mike killay]

No, this one carries heavy rear weights and tows a large trailer. The wheel is built with standard 14 gauge spokes and is heavily dished, but has never suffered a broken spoke.
.

Well, is the answer that spokes break because they are inferior foreign quality and not British made ones?

 

[flecc]

Well, is the answer that spokes break because they are inferior foreign quality and not British made ones?

Plausible, but no. The reason spokes break is that wheels are poorly built. Even in a very high load situations like that rear wheel on my small bike, ordinary 14 gauge spokes are more than adequate when all the spoke tensions are correct so they equally share the load.

In addition to all the high load situations linked to on that bike, it's always suffered the appalling roads around my area, the lanes in particularly rutted and potholed, giving the wheels a hammering. And the motor is a high torque one fed by a controller that delivers over 28 amps, hitting 1000 watts gross.
.

 

[Georgew]

The most common reason for spokes breaking is too much flex and this is usually caused by too low a tension or the spoke tensions being uneven.
If, when the wheel is constructed and the spokes when tensioned are not then adequately de-stressed, then they will unwind causing uneven tension. This in turn will cause excess flex when the spoke rotates from its low tension position at the bottom of the wheel to the top. In time the spoke will break due to the repeated flex involved.
Most wheels are made by machine and while these vary in sophistication, I'm unaware of any machine which can carry out the de-stressing function, so with any machine-made wheel that I buy I make a habit of bringing all the spokes up to the proper tension before evening these out and de-stressing them.

When using a large hub it's important to note how the spokes seat into the hub and some manufacturers e.g. Rohloff, specifically forbid some types of spoke patterns as these will lead to spoke breakage.

Small wheels will be intrinsically stronger...all other things being equal.

 

[Malcolm Stephenson]

My uncle works at Raleigh in the warehouse
I asked him about a Raleigh ebike last year and he said don't bother they get half as many back as they ship out

I don't think these bikes make it to end user and it's dealer returns

 

[Danidl]

My uncle works at Raleigh in the warehouse
I asked him about a Raleigh ebike last year and he said don't bother they get half as many back as they ship out

I don't think these bikes make it to end user and it's dealer returns

... Does that sound plausible?. No business could survive on such a return margin,

 

[Malcolm Stephenson]

Just what he said

He can get me staff discount of between 20-30% buy said don't bother

Can't see any reason he would lie but you never know

Unless someone on here works in a bike shop that sells Raleigh to confirm or deny it

 

[Caph]

Plausible, but no. The reason spokes break is that wheels are poorly built. Even in a very high load situations like that rear wheel on my small bike, ordinary 14 gauge spokes are more than adequate when all the spoke tensions are correct so they equally share the load.

In addition to all the high load situations linked to on that bike, it's always suffered the appalling roads around my area, the lanes in particularly rutted and potholed, giving the wheels a hammering. And the motor is a high torque one fed by a controller that delivers over 28 amps, hitting 1000 watts gross.
.

I might have known you'd know the answer Tony. I've been away for quite some time. Good to see you are still here. And nearly 35K posts!!!

 

[Danidl]

Just what he said

He can get me staff discount of between 20-30% buy said don't bother

Can't see any reason he would lie but you never know

Unless someone on here works in a bike shop that sells Raleigh to confirm or deny it

I am not suggesting that anyone is lieing, a possible scenario would be that there are multiple dispatch warehouses and perhaps only one retrieval warehouse.