G
Greg
Guest
I have been building wheels for about 10 years. I'm don't consider
myself to be an expert or any great wheel builder, but what I build, I
ride and it works.
Recently, I bought a set of pre-built wheels from Performance because
they were exactly what I would have built for myself, and they were
cheaper than what I could have done it for. They are your
garden-variety Ultegra 9-speed 32 hole hubs, laced 3x with DT 14/15 DB
spokes on Open Pro rims.
Over the first couple of hundred miles they went slightly out of true
so I trued them up and using a Wheelsmith tensiometer and the
recommended 80 to 110 kgf as a guide (I typically shoot for right
around 90-95), I brought the wheel back into true and with consistent
tension across all the spokes.
Over the next couple of hundred they went out of true again and I
noticed that some of the spokes were detensioning noticeably (non-drive
side predominantly). I repeated the aforementioned process to bring
them back into true and tension. Shortly thereafter, broke a spoke.
A thousand or so miles later, I broke another, some time later,
another. Today, I broke number 5, all in the course of one year and
5000 miles. They have all been on the non-drive side of the rear wheel,
and have been trailing spokes (on these particular wheels the spoke
heads are facing out on the trailing spokes).
So now, my questions to Mr. Brandt or anyone else that may have an
opinion, insight or experience with this sort of repeated, predictable
failure...
Generally speaking, is a non-drive spoke more apt to break from too
much tension or too little?
What significance is there (if any) that these are all the same side
and orientation?
Is this a pre-stress (or lack thereof) issue?
What can I do besides tear them apart and re-do them? I have
considered detensioning the whole wheel enough to expose a few spoke
threads, use a few drops of Loctite 242 and then retension the wheel as
I normally would, but I would like some opinions on "my choice" of
tension that I build into a wheel (mentioned above).
BTW, I am 6' 2", 220 pounds. My riding style is higher cadence
spinning and rarely do I mash. When I climb, I sit and spin up instead
of honking in a big gear. I don't consider myself brutal to my
equipment and prior to this particular set of wheels, I have maybe
broken a half-dozen spokes total in 20+ years and god only knows how
many thousands of miles.
Any opinions welcome. Thanks in advance - and I apologize for the long
post. I wanted to provide all the info I could.
Greg
myself to be an expert or any great wheel builder, but what I build, I
ride and it works.
Recently, I bought a set of pre-built wheels from Performance because
they were exactly what I would have built for myself, and they were
cheaper than what I could have done it for. They are your
garden-variety Ultegra 9-speed 32 hole hubs, laced 3x with DT 14/15 DB
spokes on Open Pro rims.
Over the first couple of hundred miles they went slightly out of true
so I trued them up and using a Wheelsmith tensiometer and the
recommended 80 to 110 kgf as a guide (I typically shoot for right
around 90-95), I brought the wheel back into true and with consistent
tension across all the spokes.
Over the next couple of hundred they went out of true again and I
noticed that some of the spokes were detensioning noticeably (non-drive
side predominantly). I repeated the aforementioned process to bring
them back into true and tension. Shortly thereafter, broke a spoke.
A thousand or so miles later, I broke another, some time later,
another. Today, I broke number 5, all in the course of one year and
5000 miles. They have all been on the non-drive side of the rear wheel,
and have been trailing spokes (on these particular wheels the spoke
heads are facing out on the trailing spokes).
So now, my questions to Mr. Brandt or anyone else that may have an
opinion, insight or experience with this sort of repeated, predictable
failure...
Generally speaking, is a non-drive spoke more apt to break from too
much tension or too little?
What significance is there (if any) that these are all the same side
and orientation?
Is this a pre-stress (or lack thereof) issue?
What can I do besides tear them apart and re-do them? I have
considered detensioning the whole wheel enough to expose a few spoke
threads, use a few drops of Loctite 242 and then retension the wheel as
I normally would, but I would like some opinions on "my choice" of
tension that I build into a wheel (mentioned above).
BTW, I am 6' 2", 220 pounds. My riding style is higher cadence
spinning and rarely do I mash. When I climb, I sit and spin up instead
of honking in a big gear. I don't consider myself brutal to my
equipment and prior to this particular set of wheels, I have maybe
broken a half-dozen spokes total in 20+ years and god only knows how
many thousands of miles.
Any opinions welcome. Thanks in advance - and I apologize for the long
post. I wanted to provide all the info I could.
Greg