I have heard Bob mention carrying one, but has anybody actually ever used one? Lots of reviews on the web, but nobody seems to have used one. They seem like a great idea. I have only broken one spoke in all the year I have been riding and I guess this would have been a good idea to have had.

On my bikepacking bikes I carry spare spokes - 3 full sized for each wheel taped to my seat stays.
For other uses i’ve Got a FibreFix but i’ve never used it as I haven’t broken a spoke in years.
The main advantage as I see it is the ability to replace a drive side rear wheel spoke without removing the cassette.

https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/spokes/fibe ... ent-spoke/

Accoed8ng to this and the reviews it seems to work well (for 200 miles in one of the reviews until she got home) so is it any worth really taking lots of spare spokes for each side front n back?

Seems like the perfect insurance against never having a broken spoke! 11 out of 12 have never used it and 1 wants to strangle his wife with it SJS cycles, the last refuge of CTC man. Saying that, just about to place an order with them for some Rohloff bits that they've probably had in stock for 20 years.
Luckily I only have 2 different sizes on my dynamo front hub gear rear bike so carry 2 of each. I've had 4 breakages on 2x C2C trips but none since respoking with plain guage spokes. Now if there was a similar gizmo for repairing cracked Ti frames, where do I sign?

pistonbroke wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 3:05 pm Now if there was a similar gizmo for repairing cracked Ti frames, where do I sign?

It's called a TIG welder bud :lol:
Bit bulky to fit in the frame bag though.

Usually this sort of weird and wonderful variant on a a tool/spare costs loads of money (I'm looking at you Tubolito) so £9 isn't that bad. Of course if the spoke has broken far enough away from either j-bend or nipple then you could use a ladder of zip-ties to achieve the same effect.

The only downside to fitting this is that if you run tubeless then you just have to hope that the break isn't right at the nipple and that you can get the remnants of the spoke out of the nipple to fit the two bar "ladder" replacement otherwise it's tyre off, rim tape off to replace the nipple.

That's not really a disadvantage compared to conventional spokes though. I'm struggling to see a problem it could face that would be addressed by a conventional spoke.
I'm also wondering if the breaking strength of my dyneema guy-lines would be sufficient to be bodged into similar service in an emergency.

Same story as others- had a couple for years. Kept one in the bag on each bike. Never had a broken spoke. Cheap insurance.

Here is a neat looking method for emergency spoke repair.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Emerge ... epair-Kit/

I've used one in anger. On a trip to Tenerife, took me up and down Tiede's rough roads a few times, no issues!

Fitting helps if the nipple remains in situ, especially when tubeless. Guess I was lucky.

Just been reading up on wheel building and found that spokes work in compression rather than tension. That being the case, how does a flexible spoke do anything other than provide a placebo piece of mind?

The fact that it's possible to build a whole wheel with flexible spokes might be the proof that they don't just work in compression?

Edit, like these

https://berdspokes.com/pages/technology

mechanicaldope wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 10:49 pm Just been reading up on wheel building and found that spokes work in compression rather than tension. That being the case, how does a flexible spoke do anything other than provide a placebo piece of mind?

They are in tension not compression. Take a spoke and put it into compression and it will buckle very easily. You tighten spokes up enough so that even with the biggest compression load from the bike and rider weight hitting a big bump, the spokes on the bottom of the wheel are still just in tension.

Ah, OK. That makes sense.

mechanicaldope wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 11:51 pm Ah, OK. That makes sense.

Edit: just realised I got my original comment all arse about tit but your responses appear to have anticipated that. Cheers.

Like others, I’ve carried one for years but never had the need to use it yet.