I've taken in an Easton EA70 for repair.
One spoke is missing, so it needs to be replaced.
Interestingly, the spoke has broken midway along its length.
It's on the freewheel side, but not at the intersection point of a tangential spoke pattern.
The EA90 I worked on the other day also had a spoke break in the middle,
but that was a radial-laced front wheel, so there are no intersection points to begin with.
In both cases, the owner said the spoke suddenly broke while riding—not from external shock like hitting something or a crash.
So it seems the butted section couldn't handle the tension and snapped.
Easton wheels like this are typically built with these thin, round-butted spokes under slightly excessive tension.
The rim damage on that EA90 also occurred at a different location than the spoke break.
If they weren't straight spokes, the spoke neck might have flown off,
but since the weakest point has shifted elsewhere, that's what happened here.
Velomax (Easton's predecessor brand) also made wheels with similar specifications,
and some models alternate the color of the nipples.
On this wheel, the freewheel side uses brass nipples while
the non-freewheel side uses black aluminum nipples,
which highlights that they've changed the nipple material between sides.
Velomax had a rule that you shouldn't touch these brass nipples on the freewheel side during truing,
but realistically you can't true a wheel adjusting only the non-freewheel side—
there are plenty of cases where you have no choice but to adjust the freewheel side too.
So I wish they'd first produce a wheel with such perfect build quality (essentially impossible)
before making such high-handed declarations.
It's fixed.
I was lucky that I could get the appropriate replacement spoke.
One spoke is missing, so it needs to be replaced.
Interestingly, the spoke has broken midway along its length.
It's on the freewheel side, but not at the intersection point of a tangential spoke pattern.
The EA90 I worked on the other day also had a spoke break in the middle,
but that was a radial-laced front wheel, so there are no intersection points to begin with.
In both cases, the owner said the spoke suddenly broke while riding—not from external shock like hitting something or a crash.
So it seems the butted section couldn't handle the tension and snapped.
Easton wheels like this are typically built with these thin, round-butted spokes under slightly excessive tension.
The rim damage on that EA90 also occurred at a different location than the spoke break.
If they weren't straight spokes, the spoke neck might have flown off,
but since the weakest point has shifted elsewhere, that's what happened here.
Velomax (Easton's predecessor brand) also made wheels with similar specifications,
and some models alternate the color of the nipples.
On this wheel, the freewheel side uses brass nipples while
the non-freewheel side uses black aluminum nipples,
which highlights that they've changed the nipple material between sides.
Velomax had a rule that you shouldn't touch these brass nipples on the freewheel side during truing,
but realistically you can't true a wheel adjusting only the non-freewheel side—
there are plenty of cases where you have no choice but to adjust the freewheel side too.
So I wish they'd first produce a wheel with such perfect build quality (essentially impossible)
before making such high-handed declarations.
It's fixed.
I was lucky that I could get the appropriate replacement spoke.