I took my broken spoke to my regular bike shop and got a replacement. When I got it home I realized that I didn't have a tool to remove the fixed gear on the hub so I could insert the spoke in the hub. I didn't want to take the wheel in as I obtained this bike over e-bay. The guys at the bike shops frown on this. And this guy is very sensitive to this even though I have purchased two bikes from him, my mountain bike and my regular road bike.
Anyway I decided to go to another shop to avoid any hard feelings. One of the things that bothers me is that when you need a simple thing done they always want to make out a repair order and make you wait a week and then pay $30 or $40. All of the shops tend to do this. They are busy this time of year. So a couple of years ago I bought an extensive set of bike tools so I could make my own repairs.
None the less I arived in this shop with my wheel and spoke in hand. There was a sales woman at a counter and the mechanic also. The woman hauls out a repair work order form. I looked at it and said, "you know, I just need this lock ring removed." I can do the rest myself. She pulled back the book with that look on her face, (he is going to weasle a free repair out of us) and the mechanic said I can do that for you. So I followed him into the work area.
He had to work to get it off but finally did. Then together we laced the spoke in. And I got his advice on truing the wheel. (I have a truing stand) and I picked his brain in general. I took the wheel home and got it true and put tire back on and put it all back on the bike. Like everything it ended up being more work than I thought. But it only cost me the price of the spoke. $2.40 and a couple of trips to bike shops.
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