Spoke Too Soon

I was silently thinking about why my Clydesdale weight combined with a heavy "laptop" and construction ridden SF roads pounding on my Dahon's 16 inch rear wheel... when it happened. Twang... A spoke had let go. I figured this was not a big deal as I had replaced broken spokes and in fact built many wheels in my past. This however is a uniquely tiny bike and with many unique things falls out side of "normal" range. My 16 inch (305) wheel with a 3 speed hub requires a 125mm long spoke. It turns out that even custom spoke cutters at the best bike shop in town can only cut 136mm spokes. What? So finding this out on a Sunday night with a pending meeting on Monday morning that required a bike to attend, I was forced to go to a deep dark place and..... make my own spoke. Well not completely, but I bent a much longer spoke into a tiny spoke. After a whopping 6 miles of riding it is still holding up. My fingers are still crossed....

Notice the eerie headless spoke. Ichabod Crane watch out....