PSA: I hit 1,000 spoke replacements in my shop and my thumb will never be the same

I've been keeping a tally on the wall behind my bench for the last 5 years, just little tick marks every time I lace up a new spoke. Last week I finally crossed the 1,000 mark and I honestly didn't think I'd ever get there. It's not just the number though, it's what each one meant. Like that time a guy brought in a 1980s Bianchi with three broken spokes on the rear drive side and I thought I was gonna lose my mind trying to match the gauge. Or the mountain biker who snapped a spoke every two weeks until I realized his rim was cracked. 1,000 spokes is a lot of bad roads and broken parts. My thumb gets this weird callus on the side from twisting the nipples, it's like a permanent lump now. Has anyone else kept a weird shop tally and what was yours?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_clark6d ago

My old shop manager kept a tally of how many times he stitched up his own fingers from spoke ends. He got to like 40 before he lost count (and honestly, the scar tissue on his knuckles looked like a lumpy roadmap). One time he pulled a spoke out of his thumb with pliers, wrapped it in shop rag, and kept lacing. Different kind of tally, I guess, but it's the same weird pride in the damage.

joseph_coleman6d ago

Pliers on a thumb spoke? That made me wince just reading it.