Spokes Breaking

I started breaking spokes on the rear wheel of my Trek 7100 hybrid earlier in the summer. The bike was less than a year old, and I took it into my LBS. They fixed the broken spoke, and re-trued the wheel with no questions. The trouble is that another spoke broke just a few days later. When I took it back, the owner of the shop said that the wheel was most likely defective, with the spokes being over-tensioned and permanently stressed from the factory (they're cheap Bontranger wheels). So they replaced the wheel for me under warranty, and I haven't had a problem since. I weigh about 260lbs, and I ride on some rather rough roads and trails, so I'm glad the new wheel fixed the problem.

Anyway, Mavic's are good wheels, and in my not-so-expert opinion, you shouldn't be having spoke issues with them. When I was talking to the owner of my LBS about my back wheel, he said that when a spoke breaks and the wheel goes out of true, sometimes it can stress the rest of the spokes enough that they're almost guaranteed to break. This is especially true if the wheel wasn't tensioned properly to begin with. I don't know if this is what's happened in your case, but it's something to think about.

motorhommer said:

I am regular commuter 100 miles a weeks and changed my wheels about 2,300 miles ago as old ones had worn out. Mavic Open Pro rims, ultegra hub.
Each 2 weeks for the past 6 weeks I have had a spoke break on the back wheel freewheel side, this is costing me time and money.
Is this normal, how does this normally work. I have been commuting now for 8 years but have gradually upped my bike and spec. Perhaps one of the more experienced amongst you can help.

Brian

Hey Brian,

Did you figure out what was going on with the broken spokes? I've got the same rims and hubs. I bought them from Jensen USA last summer. Maybe you did too... I broke a spoke today on the freewheel side.

Jeo

jeo said:

Hey Brian,

Did you figure out what was going on with the broken spokes? I've got the same rims and hubs. I bought them from Jensen USA last summer. Maybe you did too... I broke a spoke today on the freewheel side.

Jeo

Yes just change the spoke and replace. The other thing I did was to true the wheel and stress relieve all the spokes - see parktools web site on how to do this. Since I have done this I have no problem with broken spokes - touch wood have not had a broken one in over 4 months now.
I think if you get a good shop to do this or I would try and do it myself if I were you - then you should have no further problems.

Brian

One of my wheels got wasted the other day, Two of the spokes got messed up and the rim is about 4-6 MM out of round and unrideable. It was a $40.00 piece of [censored] though so I didn't lose to much money.

The wheel has a Mavic CXP-22 Rim, Cheap Spokes and A shimano CP-2200 Hub.
(I used it to train on)

Cyclist14 said:

One of my wheels got wasted the other day, Two of the spokes got messed up and the rim is about 4-6 MM out of round and unrideable. It was a $40.00 piece of [censored] though so I didn't lose to much money.

The wheel has a Mavic CXP-22 Rim, Cheap Spokes and A shimano CP-2200 Hub.
(I used it to train on)

Glad to hear you didn't miss out too bad money wise. The bike shop said mine would cost around $12-15 and they can do it today. I've got a race this weekend so I don't want to take a chance on me messing up my only wheel. Also, since my bike is my car, my wife had to drop me off at work today so she's taking care of it for me. 🙂