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I need some help here. I have mavic wheels (32 spoke) with about 5000 miles on them. They are my training wheels and I have been breaking spokes on the rear wheel way too often, maybe 5 spokes over the last 18 months, and tthe wheel was compleatly rebuilt once. All work was done by either of 2 good bike shops. The hubs are tiagra's and have never been rebuilt. they are 650's and I do weigh about 190 pounds. I have two questions; 1. is this normal? 2. is it worth rebuilding the wheel? with 5k on the hubs, should I just break down and buy a whole new wheel. I ride on regular, not bumpy roads and do not hit potholes and unweight onexpansion cracks.
thanks, Steve
not normal at all.
where are the spokes breaking?
the spokes break right at the hob flange
tristeve,
Ben in Fl is right. Not normal at all. Were the hubs new? If not, perhaps the wheel was rebuilt with the spoke pattern reversed such that every spoke that had previously been laced from the inside was now laced from the outside and vice versa. Now the edges of the holes drilled in the hub were cutting the spokes at the flange.
Are all the spokes breaking on the drive side? All on spokes laced from the same side of the flange, inside or outside? I don't know the significance of this but I'm sure it says something if they are all the same.
Lastly, don't forget the 3 spoke rule for broken spokes in a wheel. I learned it the hard way. After 5 0r 6 broken spokes that I had replaced individually over many miles, I had a catastrophic failure that gobbled up the rear derailleur on a 7 day bike trip on the Natchez Trace Parkway.
Maybe one of the wheel gurus will pitch in and help out.
Ben Cline
Better to aspire to Greatness and fail, than to not challenge one's self at all, and succeed.
No this is not normal. Wheel rebuilt by bike shop and still breaking spokes at the hub.
Are the spokes that break comming from the outside of the hub or inside? drive side or non-drive side? Push spokes or pull spokes? Are the same spokes breaking or is it a different one every time?
5000 miles is not that many miles to have spoke failures. This screams to me as an error in building but there are other possibilities. First one that comes to mind is that the spokes may be too big for the spoke holes and the spokes weren't bent over to angle up to the rim correctly. That is very easily done but often overlooked. I have seen this happen on the non-drive side outside spokes, push and pull. Stress relieving the spokes is very important in the building process, if not done, spokes will fail from cold working.
Another thing that comes to mind is that the hub may be damaged and the flanges are twisting. That can cause some spokes to get loose and then start to work back and forth and eventually fail.
Lastly, you could be so powerfull that you just tear up wheels with shear strength :) Honestly you should be able to ride 32 spoke wheels built with 15/17 guage wheels with no problems.
My opinion, new hub $30 to $70, new spokes $30, you're looking at $60 to $100 plus building fees. Time to get a new rear wheel and put the worries behind you.
These are the first things that come to mind. I'm not a master wheel builder but I have built a couple hundred sets of wheels and feel that wheel building is an art form and not a production.
jaretj
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.