Reynolds Stratus...breaking spokes

[rudycyclist]

I am looking at buying a set of Reynolds Stratus DV wheels but there's one problem. I've ridden them and our team has broken about 10 spokes on them between 2 pairs just this past year. We had a pro mechanic for a big race we were doing and he told us that the rim and hubs are good but the wheel probably needs to be relaced with new spokes. Would this help with not breaking anymore spokes? I want to make sure that when I buy them, I'm not breaking spokes left and right like our team has been doing for the past year or 2.

 

[carpediemracing]

spokes are like rubber bands - they lose elasticity after a while. all metals do this (for an extreme case, check out the plane in hawaii that semi-disintegrated in midair).

since metal loses elasticity at a given rate and you have a bunch of spokes that are approximately the same age and size, they'll have similar lifespans. you'll find the same with other consumables like lightbulbs (if one of your headlights goes out, the other will probably follow - or if you installed all your lightbulbs in your house at one time, they'll fail relatively close together).

if you break one spoke, it might be an anomoly. more than one, probably the spokes are at the end of their usable life.

I have the same wheels and ran into the same problem after one year of very light use. I relaced the wheel and it's been fine. I expect it to last longer than the stock spokes - maybe two-three years - since I used 2.0 revolution spokes, not the 1.8 mm spokes used originally.

I've had to do the same with any 1.8mm spoked wheel in the past - usually I'd get 1.5-2 years from a set of spokes in a low spoke count wheel. 2.0 spokes break much less frequently.

hope this helps,
cdr

 

[artemidorus]

spokes are like rubber bands - they lose elasticity after a while. all metals do this (for an extreme case, check out the plane in hawaii that semi-disintegrated in midair).

since metal loses elasticity at a given rate and you have a bunch of spokes that are approximately the same age and size, they'll have similar lifespans. you'll find the same with other consumables like lightbulbs (if one of your headlights goes out, the other will probably follow - or if you installed all your lightbulbs in your house at one time, they'll fail relatively close together).

if you break one spoke, it might be an anomoly. more than one, probably the spokes are at the end of their usable life.

I have the same wheels and ran into the same problem after one year of very light use. I relaced the wheel and it's been fine. I expect it to last longer than the stock spokes - maybe two-three years - since I used 2.0 revolution spokes, not the 1.8 mm spokes used originally.

I've had to do the same with any 1.8mm spoked wheel in the past - usually I'd get 1.5-2 years from a set of spokes in a low spoke count wheel. 2.0 spokes break much less frequently.

hope this helps,
cdr

Are you saying that the modulus alters with age? I don't think so. It's more the case that fatigue cracks accumulate and enlarge and eventually cause failure, is it not?

 

[alienator]

Are you saying that the modulus alters with age? I don't think so. It's more the case that fatigue cracks accumulate and enlarge and eventually cause failure, is it not?

Yes. Of course things change if they move into the plastic region of the stress/strain curve, but that's not a place that spokes on a wheel go.

 

[531Aussie]

I am looking at buying a set of Reynolds Stratus DV wheels but there's one problem....

not worth it in my opinion, coz there are a bazillion other wheels out there. The thought of breaking a spoke during a ride or race cannot compare the real (farking) feeling of frustration when it actually happens out on the road.

For what it's worth, I know I guy with DVs and Zipp 404s, and he 'feels' as though the Zipps are faster.

I had some old Mavic Cosmic Pros (mid/late '90s); 38mm deep with 16 spokes, and they drove me NUTS having to true them every 2 weeks. I also busted about 3 spokes in 3 months. Maybe i was too heavy for them.

Maybe you're getting a great deal on the Reynolds', I dunno, but apart from them, I assume you know of all the other companies offering similar wheels:

Ambrosio
Corima
Mavic
FSA
Easton
Ritchey
Rolf
Vuelta
Pro Lite (carbon?)
Hed
Zipp
Flash Point
Gipiemme
Fulcrum
FIR
Campag


etc. etc

 

[rudycyclist]

not worth it in my opinion, coz there are a bazillion other wheels out there. The thought of breaking a spoke during a ride or race cannot compare the real (farking) feeling of frustration when it actually happens out on the road.

For what it's worth, I know I guy with DVs and Zipp 404s, and he 'feels' as though the Zipps are faster.

I had some old Mavic Cosmic Pros (mid/late '90s); 38mm deep with 16 spokes, and they drove me NUTS having to true them every 2 weeks. I also busted about 3 spokes in 3 months. Maybe i was too heavy for them.

Maybe you're getting a great deal on the Reynolds', I dunno, but apart from them, I assume you know of all the other companies offering similar wheels:

Ambrosio
Corima
Mavic
FSA
Easton
Ritchey
Rolf
Vuelta
Pro Lite (carbon?)
Hed
Zipp
Flash Point
Gipiemme
Fulcrum
FIR
Campag


etc. etc

Yeah I know there are probably better wheels out there or there are other wheels prefer to buy but I am a college student and don't have a ton of money laying around. I'm getting a deal on them because I am buying them from a former team I rode for. I've ridden these when they didn't break spokes and loved them.

Also, so basically is everyone saying I should put new spokes in the pair of wheels?

 

[carpediemracing]

I'd buy the wheels and relace them.

As for metal fatigue, I'm not familar with the mechanics/chemistry of it but I do know that planes are limited to how many cycles they can be pressurized (i.e. fly at higher altitudes). The planes are clearly below their max pressure since new planes don't blow up spontaneously at altitude but after 60k or so cycles, planes aren't expected to stay in one piece during normal flight operations. I watched (on a plane, no less) a program about a short-flight airline in Hawaii - they did something like 8 cycles a day - and part of the plane simply fell off due to fatigue cracks. The plane actually made it back to an airport and landed - and you could see the row of passengers out in the now-convertible plane. It had some enormous number of cycles - I want to say 70 or 100k, but I don't remember and I can't find the specific incident on the web. I don't know if the cracks were there in the bare metal when the metal was formed but they were there and big enough to cause the top of the plane to break off. The official cause of the incident was metal fatigue.

I used the Cosmics for a while - they were essentially faired aluminum rims, the rims were not that stiff so there was a lot of flex. Fast but flexy. A stiffer rim would have helped a lot.

Finally, on breaking a spoke. While on my DV46s I broke one at a race (front spoke) and thought about stopping. Circuit race, no free lap but no hard turns - 50 mph descent though. Noise was annoying and I wasn't sure how the wheel would hold up. After 20 miles of racing and doing some aggressive descending (full tuck, 50 mph, praying spoke didn't break and go up my nose) I decided the wheel wasn't going to break on me. I moved up with about 3 or 4 miles to go and placed in the money (top 10) in the field sprint, spoke noisemaker and all.

As for faster wheels, there definitely are faster wheels out there than the DV46 but they have their disadvantages (cost, weight, etc). Since the choice is DV46 or not, I'd get them.

cdr