Breaking spokes

[Zephyr]

Do you pop a lot of spokes when riding?  I have talked to people who ride for years and have never popped one.  

I have broken three since spring.  When the first one goes I replace them all and after that just the ones at a time.  Always on an uphill climb when trying to push myself. I cannot even tell you how many I have broke riding.  It is a pain in the ass.  Last year I broke on 30 miles into a Gran Fondo and did the last 70 nursing an now non-true rim.  I do check the tightness of them regularly.

Is it because I am big for a road rider(225lbs) or do I just need better wheels?  Does anyone know?  

[ChrisL]

15 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

Do you pop a lot of spokes when riding?  I have talked to people who ride for years and have never popped one.  

I have broken three since spring.  When the first one goes I replace them all and after that just the ones at a time.  Always on an uphill climb when trying to push myself. I cannot even tell you how many I have broke riding.  It is a pain in the ass.  Last year I broke on 30 miles into a Gran Fondo and did the last 70 nursing an now non-true rim.  I do check the tightness of them regularly.

Is it because I am big for a road rider(225lbs) or do I just need better wheels?  Does anyone know?  

I’m about the same weight and no, not really an issue with me.

On my previous cross bike I hit a rock & broke a spoke.  I had it replaced and soon after popped another. I had the wheel rebuilt and solved the problem.  My Bianchi has pretty light weight wheels 1,400 grams and I was a bit concerned about their light weight & my weight but the LBS owner assured me they were fine for road use and they have been (albeit I rarely ride the bike these days).  

I think it’s more about the wheel and the quality of the build that’s causing it. 

[Razors Edge ★]

22 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

Do you pop a lot of spokes when riding?  I have talked to people who ride for years and have never popped one.  

I have broken three since spring.  When the first one goes I replace them all and after that just the ones at a time.  Always on an uphill climb when trying to push myself. I cannot even tell you how many I have broke riding.  It is a pain in the ass.  Last year I broke on 30 miles into a Gran Fondo and did the last 70 nursing an now non-true rim.  I do check the tightness of them regularly.

Is it because I am big for a road rider(225lbs) or do I just need better wheels?  Does anyone know?  

I've broken two spokes in maybe 40,000 miles.  One was obvious when & what caused it, but not if there was an underlying issue - poor tension, weight, structural flaw, etc.  I'm about 155lbs, but also generally ride above average wheels, so either that is a plus (quality costs $$$) or a minus (lightweight = weaker?).

[maddmaxx ★]

I have never broken a spoke.  I did have a wheel customer who managed to break several.  The first was my fault in a way.  He wanted light wheels and I used aluminium nipples.  He wanted light wheels for his "commuter" in New England snow country and never washed the salt off of them.  I rebuilt the wheels with steel spokes for free.  (I'm really a nice teddy bear sort of guy).  The next spoke he broke had signs of a derailleur strike and his hanger was broken.  Rebuilt at cost.  The next one he broke was "It's going to cost you Jack.

If he'd been cracking rims I might have understood as I built to a high tension standard.  But the spokes were getting damaged by hitting things.

None of the rest of my (relatively limited two dozen or so) customers ever broke a spoke.

[Forum Administrator]

I've only broken spokes when touring.  I broke one in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park when I slipped off the paved trail and hit a tree branch.  I broke two when I was on the GAP last year. 

I got a stronger wheelset over the winter, but haven't done any loaded touring on them yet.

[bikeman564™]

IIRC I've only broke one spoke. I had a spoke/nipple strip once or twice where the spoke pulled out of it. LBS took care of this for me easy & low cost.

[Longjohn ★]

I’ve never broken a spoke on any of my bikes. Most of my life I weighed 200# more or less. I have never changed wheelsets from what came on the bike.  I never broke a spoke on my motorcycles although I did taco a couple wheels in crashes.

[Bikeguy]

I've only broken spokes on rear wheels,  Not from hitting the derailleur, or hitting anything.   Now, I'm between 225 and 230.

Our tandem had 48 spokes per wheel.  Over the years at least 2 spokes have broken.  Yeah go figure with 48 spokes.  At least there are so many spokes the wheel is nearly true and we can ride home with no problems. 

My road bike.  I my first set of wheels that came with the bike Mavic Ksyrium started to develop cracks in the rim near the spoke nipples.  I was probably closer to 240 or 250 back then.  I went with an Mavic Open Pro rear wheel with 32 spokes.  One spoke broke last fall on a climb.

I did taco a wheel on my MTB once, crashing was involved with that.  

 

[groupw]

Never broke a spoke. I weigh 175-185 depending on the year and where I am in the season. Our roads are not smooth. I was hit by a car 9 years ago. It bent the rear wheel, but spikes were fine. 

[maddmaxx ★]

Edit to post 4 above.  For some reason my fingers typed steel spokes when I meant brass nipples.  The spokes were always DT double butted.

[Razors Edge ★]

2 hours ago, Bikeguy said:

I my first set of wheels that came with the bike Mavic Ksyrium started to develop cracks in the rim near the spoke nipples.  I was probably closer to 240 or 250 back then.

As did my Ksyriums.  I think that was a common enough issue.  Mine happened several years out of warranty

[maddmaxx ★]

1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

As did my Ksyriums.  I think that was a common enough issue.  Mine happened several years out of warranty

Mavic had special warranty deals on several of their rims.  For some reason they were prone to cracking and pulling the nipple out of it's hole.

[Randomguy]

6 hours ago, Zephyr said:

Do you pop a lot of spokes when riding?  I have talked to people who ride for years and have never popped one.  

I have broken three since spring.  When the first one goes I replace them all and after that just the ones at a time.  Always on an uphill climb when trying to push myself. I cannot even tell you how many I have broke riding.  It is a pain in the ass.  Last year I broke on 30 miles into a Gran Fondo and did the last 70 nursing an now non-true rim.  I do check the tightness of them regularly.

Is it because I am big for a road rider(225lbs) or do I just need better wheels?  Does anyone know?  

 

6 hours ago, ChrisL said:

I’m about the same weight and no, not really an issue with me.

On my previous cross bike I hit a rock & broke a spoke.  I had it replaced and soon after popped another. I had the wheel rebuilt and solved the problem.  My Bianchi has pretty light weight wheels 1,400 grams and I was a bit concerned about their light weight & my weight but the LBS owner assured me they were fine for road use and they have been (albeit I rarely ride the bike these days).  

I think it’s more about the wheel and the quality of the build that’s causing it. 

In my experience working in shops (just sales), once you break more than one spoke on a wheel, it is the beginning of the end for that wheel and it will be nothing but trouble from then on out.  Best get them completely rebuilt by someone that knows their stuff.

I am at the point that most higher end pre-built wheels seem to have much greater longevity than handbuilt.  I have had some wheels that just never seem to need a true ever, and don't break spokes, nothing.  Kysrium SSL SL's I thought were dogshit in the wind and completely non-aero, but seemed unbreakable, then my Velomax and Easton wheels absolutely never even had a spoke wrench on them.  Granted, I did sell them before the 10,000 mile mark, but those were tough wheels!  My OP's needed constant truing, and I had another wheelset built up on some older White hubs that were a pain in the ass, too.

Could have been just my luck, but the results seemed pretty clear.  Others may have had the opposite experience, but I am going to stick with what had been working, if I ever ride a bike again.

[JerrySTL ★]

7 hours ago, Zephyr said:

Is it because I am big for a road rider(225lbs) or do I just need better wheels?  Does anyone know?

I'm within 10 lbs of you. All my wheels have at least 32 spokes. I learnt the hard way that reduced spoke wheels break spokes after just a few thousand miles. I also run bigger tires at lower pressures. I use Mavic Open Pros on my road bike.

The last spoke that I broke was on a 36 spoke wheel 4 years ago. I was riding on a trail and a stick jumped up into the spokes. Of course it was on a multi-day ride and was the spoke under the cassette so I couldn't replace it. I just loosened up the two spokes next to it and widened up the brakes some so that the wobble wouldn't be so bad. About 75 miles later a spoke 180° away also broke probably due to the relaxed tension on the other side.

[donkpow]

I've broken quite a few over the years. Mostly because I build and rebuild the wheels, swap hubs, etc. If these are traditional type wheels, I assume you are breaking them at the "J" bend.

[Zephyr]

1 hour ago, donkpow said:

I've broken quite a few over the years. Mostly because I build and rebuild the wheels, swap hubs, etc. If these are traditional type wheels, I assume you are breaking them at the "J" bend.

Both ends actually.  About an equal number of breaks at each end

[ChrisL]

2 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

Both ends actually.  About an equal number of breaks at each end

Is this on your new ”ish” bike or a different one?

[Zephyr]

1 minute ago, ChrisL said:

Is this on your new ”ish” bike or a different one?

It has been all three bikes that I have ridden on a regular basia for any length of time.  2 road bikes and one flat bar hard tail commuter

[ChrisL]

8 minutes ago, Zephyr said:

It has been all three bikes that I have ridden on a regular basia for any length of time.  2 road bikes and one flat bar hard tail commuter

Wow that’s weird. Maybe you are just a freaking monster and put out too many watts blowing the spokes?  As some have mentioned maybe having some more robust wheels built from a reputable builder (ahem @Rattlecan) is the way to go?

[donkpow]

Maybe look at your lacing pattern on the rear wheels. If your wheels are all done by the same guy, ...

[Randomguy]

13 hours ago, ChrisL said:

Maybe you are just a freaking monster and put out too many watts blowing the spokes?

There is always that guy who is a masher that is always blowing bottom brackets, too.  I rode with a guy like that, he blew out three Shimano cartridge bottom brackets in one year.  The guy wasn't super heavy, but he was strong as hell.

[Zephyr]

4 hours ago, donkpow said:

Maybe look at your lacing pattern on the rear wheels. If your wheels are all done by the same guy, ...

They are all done in the same shop, but not necessarily by the same mechanic.  The last one was on the front tire.  Rear happens more often but front has happened before