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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 22, 2011 at 3:40am

 

Broken spokes are a sign there is something wrong.  If one spoke breaks that might just be a fluke, if more spokes start breaking then that is a good indication that the whole wheel full of spokes is fatigued and they are at the end of their service life.  The regularity of spoke breakage always goes up with the age of the wheel and as the health of the wheel deteriorates.  It never gets better -only worse.

 

Keeping a wheel properly tensioned & true -and not too loose will keep the wear and accumulation of fatigue to a minimum but all wear and fatigue is always cumulative.  It is just a matter of how fast they will get worse.  Wheels don't heal -they always go downhill from the very first moment they break in until they become spoke-breaking machines.  Keeping up on the maintenance and keeping them properly tensioned goes a long way towards slowing down the process and increasing the lifespan of the wheel.

 

4 spokes is a good rule of thumb.

 

Your 4 points are well-stated and full of Truth. 

notoriousDUG said:

If you are breaking spokes with any regularity you need to look into the issue beyond just replacing them.  good rule of thumb is four broken spokes, total, not just at one time, and you need to either rebuild or replace a wheel.

 

I would suggest riding on it as little as possible.  Without the two spokes that are broken you are putting a greater strain on those that remain around them.  Breaking spokes on a regular basis is a sign of, in my opinion, at least one of four other things.  1. The wheel is just rode the hell out.  It happens; maybe it's old, maybe it's low quality, maybe it was built poorly.  2. Riding it with missing spokes has damaged others.  Regardless of age and quality the wheel is now compromised.  3. The wheel is not being maintained properly or the spokes were not replaced properly.  When spokes get replaced the tension needs to be checked the whole wheel over.  4. You are exceeding the weight carrying capacity of your wheel.  28 spoke 2 cross is not the right rear wheel for the bike you use to carry kitty litter.

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Permalink Reply by Bernard Joseph Hannigan on July 22, 2011 at 5:12am

I went thru seven breaks last year, all at the hub on the cassette side. It was a pre-built wheel set my guy put me in (CR18 Sun Rim, Shimano Parralax hub, "S" spokes 14g, 36 hole) over the Weinmann set that came with my Raleigh. I thought it was caused by my size and weight as I have a football build. Had several opinions from people but no solutions that I felt were viable. I also heard that the "S" spoke had a bad batch. I came close to having a wheel built, but I was not confident that it would solve the problem. The wheel guy told me, "you will never break a spoke if I build your wheel"....Thought that was a rather dramatic statement to make.

At any rate, we put a new wheel on this year, same specs SAVE for it having DT spokes, not a single break with 1,700 miles....We shall see....

Oh and by the way, I put a new set of tires on that I really like...CST Corporal Kevlar...COP TIRES BABY!

Perfect for the urban machine.

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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 22, 2011 at 5:48am

A new  hand-built wheel will not have issue like an older fatigued machine-built wheel will have once it starts having troubles.

 

Spoke tension on a machine-built wheel is all over the place and after you got the first spoke break on it the damage to the other spokes was already done at that point.  Breaking spokes was your warning sign that the whole wheel was nearing the end of its life.  

 

Replacing spokes after the 3rd or 4th spoke was just an exercise in futility and putting good spokes in after bad.  The wheel is shot.  Putting new spokes in one at a time is just like trying to clean a barrel of dirty water by taking out a gallon and putting in a galllon of clean water.  The whole barrel is dirty and putting that new clean gallon in doesn't do squat except get that new gallon of water dirty too. 

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