Originally Posted by
jwill226
The shop I bought it from told me they did this before I picked it up. Should I have it done again? It should have about 300 miles on it now. I changed jobs not long after I bought it and had to store it.
as the others have said, there's not an easy black and white answer. I do know that my neighbour bought a bike last year and rode it sort of regularly, but not that much. Last month asked me about a strange noise and sure enough, he had two broken drive side spokes. Took the wheel to a shop and got it retensioned, and the next day, another broken spoke.
I explained to him that especially given that it was a 32 spoke wheel (yours are 36 spokes), lower quality materials than on your bike, the bike itself is a medium priced hybrid-so just so so wheels most likely not really properly tensioned--and he weighs probably 220 and I suspect is a "heavy rider", ie not unweighting bike when he goes over potholes--and the rear wheel spokes most certainly loosened up over time due to all the forementioned factors--so in the end, the spokes had been loose for a while, and getting over stressed for a long time, until they started breaking at the typical "J" bend at the hub flange.
With only 300 miles ish on your bike, thats a small amount, but certainly enough to warrant getting the spoke tensions checked and put at the right tension for those spokes and rim--I certainly dont know proper tensions, I can take a bike and hubs totally apart and back together, but I never learned how to do wheel spokes properly, so I leave it to a good mechanic.
Seems to me that getting the spoke tensions properly checked out, and if possible putting wider tires on with lower pressures for the suspension effect, then yoiu are at least putting as much stuff on the side of the existing wheelset to tough it out.
your tires are probably 32 or 35 ish? and I believe the max tire width for the DT is 45 or 50mm
A great cost/value tire is the Schwalbe Greenguard HS 420 Marathon. They come in 700x47 and are reasonably priced. I have a pair that lived for eons on my commuter bike, in great shape with probably 10,000kms 6000mi on them, but again, being light helps a lot with this too.
any tire that is pumped up too hard puts more shocks etc into the spokes, and doesnt make you roll faster, just bangs you up more.
oh, is your DT with 700 or 26in wheels? I can't tell from the photo. 26in wheels are a bit stronger due to the shorter spokes, but if yoiu have 700, then it is what it is.