Aahzz

So the past couple days, I've been noticing a noise from my rear wheel. It's been getting steadily more noticeable, and this morning was pretty dang loud, so I cut my ride short at just over 4 miles and took a look - yeah, my rear wheel was no longer true. So, headed up to my LBS (Trek Bicycle of Cincinnati in Ft Wright KY) to let them take a look. Turns out I had indeed broken a spoke on the rear wheel. Front wheel still fine. I'm pretty sure I know when I did it - last Sunday, ironically on one of my trail rides rather than on a road. There was a section of the trail torn up to put new driveways across it, with no markings, and I had to swerve through the grass into the road - which is when I discovered it was not a smooth curb, but an 8-inch straight drop, and I landed pretty hard. As has been said, the Trek FX series should hold up to super clydes as long as we don't jump/etc, so I don't have any long term worries about the wheel sturdiness, just need to avoid crap like that.

They asked initially if I could leave it for a day or so, I told them I had a planned ride with friends tomorrow, they said they'd try to get to it today. A whopping hour and a half later they had it good to go, at no charge since the bike is still so new. I can't ask for better service than that!!!

bobwysiwyg

Good for you and good that you have such good local support.

Milton Keynes

I had problems with a couple of broken spokes recently, too. I broke one spoke, no problem, just ordered some replacements, but it was on the rear wheel on the freewheel side, and I had no way to get the freewheel off to replace the spoke. Friend of mine had a tool, we tried working on it by turning the tool and using a chain whip, couldn't turn it no matter how hard we pushed on it. Took it to a bike shop and he had it off in 10 seconds. Turns out we shouldn't have bothered with the chain whip since all you have to do is turn the tool while holding onto the wheel. He put my replacement spokes in and adjusted my hub, and I was out the door for $20. I did my own wheel truing, and the bike is running great. I've also ordered the freewheel tool which should be arriving Friday.

RubeRad

That's I think the #1 reason to prefer cassettes over freewheels.

I broke a spoke recently, although it was non-drive-side, I took off the cassette because my big cogs were in the way of threading the new spoke into the hub.

WOT

I broke spokes on my original rim at least once a week for the 1st 8 weeks back riding.

I opted for a 48 spoke build which has totally fixed the problem.

TXCiclista

One of the better investments in my bike was a pair of Mavic Aksiums that have straight spokes on the rear wheel. They eliminate the weakest spot (the bend) in a traditional spoke, so end up being much stronger. You might consider a set. Upgrading the wheelset is one of the top 3 changes anyway.