Originally Posted by Salamandrine

A few points.

First, once a wheel has broken 2 or 3 spokes, it's usually a good indicator that it's at the end of it's life.

In a way the bike shop is right, time for new wheels. However they are living in the 21st century replace the whole 'wheelset' world. The correct thing is to simply relace the hubs. You don't throw out dura ace hubs because you broke some spokes...

I'm going to disagree with most of the people on this forum with this, but, generally it's a bad idea to reuse an old rim. In this case, since the spokes are definitely toast, I recommend that you take the rim once the spokes have been cut, and lay it on a flat surface to check the true. If it's pretty much dead flat, and there are no signs of cracking or fatigue around the spoke holes, you can probably reuse. Also try to check the roundness as best you can before cutting off the spokes.

That said I generally will always recommend a new rim and new spokes if rebuilding a wheel. This was the rule during the C&V days and IMHO it still applies today. Rims are essentially consumables.

Don't forget to remove the freewheel before cutting spokes.

Originally Posted by ts99

Question:

I'll look at those sites and probably buy that book, so maybe the answer is in there, but are there extra sturdy spokes or lacing patterns or tensions? I'm a very big guy and when I'm out of the saddle and wagging back and forth, that's a lot of force.