wttrjenkins

Unfortunately I bought the bike used with only 5 miles use so I don't think its under warranty. But I did get a good price. The part that shocks me is I've put a little over 400 miles on it, a little surprised it broke a spoke already. I limped it home 5 miles after it broke. It has bladed spoke but broke at the j bend. I was going to go to the LBS yesterday but I guess they are closed on Mondays here. I was thinking about just ordering a 10 pack of regular round spokes in case more break but wanted to make sure the thread count will match up with the nipple I have? They are 290 mm spokes but I don't know the width or anything.

I should mention also this is on the rear wheel non drive side. I ride on some fairly rough roads but really try to avoid the holes in the pavement. I typically do all my mechanical work, etc. but newer to bikes so still learning. I've replaced some spokes & nipples on another bike and done some truing. The spokes I am looking at purchasing are Wheelsmith DB15 1.8/1.5/1.8 15g I can get some pictures of my wheel and spoke also. I don't have a caliper to measure precisely though.

trailangel

If you bought it used at a dealer take it back, it's under warranty.
Take it to a dealer anyway, a Trek dealer. Let them fix it. You don't know what you are doing.

wttrjenkins

I bought it from an individual. How does someone learn if they just take everything somewhere?

3alarmer 

...sometimes spokes just break. It might be related to any number of factors, but every spoke that gets put into a wheel is not manufactured to the same standard, no matter how hard the manufacturer desires that to be the case. And wheels get built to different standards too. So yeah, going back to the dealer sounds like a good first step at this point.

DT makes a good product in their spokes, but it's relatively important you replace that spoke with something that is pretty close to the original in terms of length and profile/gauge. Otherwise you end up with a wheel that is a real problem to maintain and true with balanced tensions.

3alarmer 

...If you want to learn, buy a caliper and a spoke ruler, and put on your reading glasses. Google is your friend.

cpach

There are two common theadings for spokes 14 g is 2mm at the thread and 15g is 1.8mm. Your wheel almost certainly has 14g nipples so those would be the wrong spokes. Were it me I'd get similar bladed spokes because I'm vain. If you were the original owner and you purchased the bike from my shop I'd probably replace the spoke gratis and check the spoke tension.

Trek factory wheels are in my experience better than most but few machine built wheels are especially even in tension. You can improve the longevity of the wheel by having the tension brought up to the max rim spec as evenly add possible and stress relieving the spokes. That said, if a wheel is used past its load bearing capacity it'll fail quickly. I generally view one broken spoke as a fluke—worry more if it's a pattern.

wttrjenkins

Thanks for the help everyone, I ended up being back in town today and went to the LBS. First time I've been as I try to repair all my stuff and save money so was intimidated thinking it'd be expensive. I brought my wheel in and asked for a 290 mm spoke and was told 30 cents. Now its silver not black or bladed but it would get me going again. Then they said they'd install it and true it for $10 so I went that route and picked it up later. Took it for a 13 mile ride and seems good. I guess I will just wait and see how it plays out, hopefully just a fluke one time thing.

AeroGut

For the future, knowing how to replace a spoke and true a wheel is a good skill to have if you're the sort who likes to wrench on stuff yourself (which is what it sounds like). The key tools you need are a cassette remover, chain whip, and spoke wrench. The spoke wrench needs to be the right size for the nipples you are using. Many of them have three sizes in one tool. A truing stand and a tool to measure spoke tension are useful, but not necessary to do a decent job in most cases. It's really helpful to have someone show you the process the first time rather than try on your own, and it might be best to start on an old wheel that's really out of true already so it doesn't matter if you make it worse at first. Wheels are a common topic for classes given by co-ops and commercial shops, so you can also keep your eye out for one of those.
That said, paying the LBS $10 to make sure it's done right is a pretty good deal as well, especially if it's a nice bike that you ride a lot.

jfranci3

The LBS will fix that for cheap and check the rest of the spokes. It may or may not be free. Likely if you've had one go bad, another is about to go. What pressure are you running your tires at? What size tires? How heavy are you? What surface are you riding on? This could be a component of the problem.


FWIW, I had two sets of stock Bontrager rims and both failed pretty quickly. One with road tire, the other with CX tires. I've had basic Mavic wheels fail me quickly, Fulcrum (Campy) fail slowly, but my current DT Swiss wheelset has been rock solid for years.

WizardOfBoz

Golly, I have two Bontrager wheelsets (Race XXL and Paradigm Elite). Both have pretty sparse spoke patterns. I weigh 240#. Haven't broken a spoke yet, in probably a few thousand miles over the last couple years. Just hit a pothole at speed (20mph or so) the other day. Knocked by my water bottle out of the cage. The wheels? Still true.

I've also had a pair of Campy low flange nuovo record wheels for nearly 40 years. Never broke a spoke.