ts99

Got my 1977 Trek stripped down to paint the frame, clean everything, and put together. Was planning on getting a newer bike this spring to have something more reliable to ride. But am now leaning toward just doing all riding on the old one. The thing I'm most worried about is spokes. I broke a spoke last summer. I want to do all maintenance myself, but didn't have time to fix it before a planned big ride the coming weekend, so I had a bike shop do it. The shop told me if another one breaks, just get new wheels, it's not worth it to keep replacing them and there are 27" wheels out there. Then another one broke, but I looked at it and it had just popped out of the nipple thread. I replaced the nipple and it's been fine since. The one the shop replaced was on the rear wheel. Don't recall which the stripped nipple was on, but I suspect the rear since there's more stress there.

So my spokes are ticking time bombs. But I don't want to replace my cool hubs and rims. I like them. Part of what I'm doing is keeping all original components that are still at all usable. What if I just replaced all spokes?

I googled around and the consensus seems to be to get new wheels, but there are some who have rebuilt wheels. A shop would charge at least $100 a wheel it seems, although I may call and ask.

Anyone have experience? I'd replace one spoke at a time rather than unlace the whole thing. Yes, it would be very tedious. Worth it?

Or should I just ride the snot out of it and replace them as they break and hope that I've already replaced the risky ones by the time an important ride comes along?