Drew Eckhardt 

The frame is fine.

Tony's new wheel was like his old wheel (machine built and not stress relieved), he was still (and may still be - 50 pounds off 250 is still Clydestale territory) a big guy, and that's a recipe for broken spokes.

qmsdc15

I've used a lot of machine built wheels in 25 years messengering and only had two that popped spokes on a regular basis. And I've been around 200lbs for most of that time. The bent frame was only a guess, but it's not normal for machine built wheels to fail like this. Every bike that's sold as a complete bike has machine built wheels and they hold up fine 99 times out of 100.

RSBG

This is exactly how I felt. All 3 of my bikes have (or had) this thing, and I never gave it a thought. In fact, it was a couple of days before I noticed it was gone. I had all the spokes replaced on the rear of my old Diamondback mountain bike in the early 90s. I got it back with the dork disk, but it was something that I never thought about.

Now, I'm finding that there is all kinds of controversy and disscussion concerning this little piece of plastic (my Schwinn has a metal one). As for the bike shop; this place deals in nothing but the really high end bikes and accessories. I go there because they are very close, and they get things done quickly. I don't doubt their expertise; but I also think that they left off the dork disk because they don't like them, and either assumed that I don't either, or that I just don't know any better than to leave this thing on my bike. I'm suspecting that the latter may be the case, since the reflector was still on there too. But, I wonder why they didn't take it off?

mrrabbit 

Actually, if you go back to my reply - I provided a reason to suspect their expertise.

=8-)

Sixty Fiver

As a professional mechanic, wheel builder, and frame builder who has worked on thousands of bicycles I would have to disagree with you... I have no faith in factory built wheels as I have seen too many of them fail even when the base components have been of very good quality they are not properly finished and de-stressed and this often leads to premature failure.

Sixty Fiver

On dork disks... they look a lot less dorky when they prevent your chain from chewing up your spokes and although I do not run them on my own bikes we run them on all our rental bicycles as we have less control over what happens to them while they are out.

I keep all my bikes in proper adjustment and have yet to over shift into my spokes although one XTR derailleur self destructed and did cause some spoke damage across the middle of a set of spokes which started breaking in the middle and this warranted a total rebuild of the wheel.

Barring incidents like this and having people run over their wheels with their car I have yet to have a wheel I built come back because of spoke issues and it is rare they ever need a touch up.

ultraman6970

Yes u have to start doing it yourself.

Probably u need to change all the spokes because with 5 and if the wheel has low spoke count, pretty much all of the other ones are ready to give up sooner or later.

how do I determine the spoke length <--- U have the broken spokes, right?, just measure them or take them to the lbs, they will determine by eye the right size, 1 or 2 mm longer is not an issue. Worse case scenario just take one spoke out and use that one to pick the new ones.

Spokes arent the same length in both wheels, it depends of the wheel and hubs, but pretty much the front ones plus the non driver side of the rear wheel could be the same size, obviously the driver side is shorter for a few mm because of dishing.

What wheel are we talking about anyways?? brand? model? spoke count, etc?

qmsdc15

Perhaps your perspective is skewed. I've worn the rims off many wheels used by a heavy rider on rough streets without breaking more than a couple of spokes over the life of the wheels. I don't show these wheels to bicycle mechanics. The only wheels they see are the ones that need repair and they very rarely see those either.

I've just put some store bought wheels on my MTB. Wish me luck! My other bikes have mail order wheels as well. They seem to hold up almost as well as wheels I've built myself.

I stand by my advice to buy a new wheel and start over. It's a mystery to me why some wheels just start breaking spokes, but in my experience, replacing them doesn't solve the problem. 5 spokes in 4 months indicates something is wrong and I doubt it's because nobody at the factory squeezed the spokes.

TonyA

A little more background on my case, since a few people have expressed interest:

My old wheel had slightly rusted spokes when I first bought this bike, maybe 10 years ago. All the bikes I've owned in the last 40 years have been second-hand, none particularly expensive models (a Beacon, a Gitane, a Fuji, and now a Bianchi). When spokes broke in the past I replaced them myself, doing a very amateurish job of truing the wheel, with no instruction and no thought about anything except not rubbing the brakes. During 38 of those 40 years spoke breakage was a very rare event for me.

When they started breaking frequently last year I had a bike shop replace the last couple, and then bought a new wheel from the same shop. When they kept breaking, I took the wheel to the same shop, where they said they trued and tensioned the wheel after replacing the spoke.

I thought about blaming them for not doing the job right, and for selling me an inferior wheel, but after thinking about all the wheels I rode on in the past, a lot more miles per week, all without breaking spokes, I thought it must be something I'm doing different. I asked them about that. They said no, spoke breakage isn't caused by riding habits, but might be caused by potholes.

That sounded right. The last one had broken after an unexpected bump that also snake-bit my inner tube. And the next one happened when I hit a small hole on a curve. Then I thought about what's been different in the last two years and realized there'd probably been a lot of that recently, and not much before.

But it's just a theory at this point. I'm trying not to go over any bumps while leaning. If I succeed at that, and don't have any more broken spokes for a year, then I'll start to feel confident about it.

In the meantime, I'm definitely going to study the frame to see if I can detect any bending. I can't think of how that would have happened, but after all the frame is the only constant so far.

I weigh 170. The least I've ever weighed as an adult was 160. My maximum weight was 220. Most of my weight loss occurred during this spoke-breaking period, and at least three have broken since I dropped below 180.

fietsbob

if the rim is OK then buying a new set of top quality spokes and re-lacing the wheel
by hand, will give better results.

there have been a bad batch of cheap, flawed, spokes used in machine built,
mass produced, low price wheels, causing breakages .

replacing all with a top Brand spoke will give you better results.

qmsdc15

Hitting little bumps in the road, in corners, etc. shouldn't cause that.

I think the frame is damaged.

How much did you spend on the replacement wheels? Does it have a brand mark on the spokes?

FBinNY 

Spokes breaking at elbows, is classic for metal fatigue. On a well built wheels, of good materials that's a long way out unless the wheel sees extremely rough service. Otherwise it's eith poor material, or poor construction. The proof of is the tens of thousands of people who are able to put lots of miles on their wheels without issues, and the large numbers of builders who'se wheels last a long time.

Usually poor wheels are because of both poor material and poor work. Sometimes, if problems are corrected early (after the first broken spoke) the wheel can be saved, but if it's ridden until multiple spokes have broken then odds are the unbroken ones are also suffering from metal fatigue, and nothing can be done.

The things that separate good wheels from poor ones can be obvious like the a skilled hand builder vs. a poor machine build (I've also seen good machine builds, but most machine builders program the machine for a shorter cycle in order to speed production, so the quality suffers), spoke quality, plain gauge vs. DB spokes, etc. But other subtle factors can also doom wheels, things like flange thickness and shape, and how the spoke sits the hub can make or break a wheel.

As for why we're seeing more wheel problems today than 20 years ago, one factor is that wheel flanges are more asymmetrical today with 9 and 10s hubs, than they were back in the day of 5s. Flange asymmetry translates directly into spoke tension differences between the right and left sides. On many modern hubs that difference can be 2:1, making it difficult to get decent tension on the left side without overtightening the right. This isn't a crisis because good wheels can still be built, but it raises the bar moving mediocre wheels down to lousy.

The OP should visit a decent specialty shop, and have a decent wheel built. It's too late to save the existing one.

jim hughes

"Dork disk". Ok.

In June of 2010 I was riding, very slowly, on my '79 Raleigh - came to a hilll and shoved the shift lever down. The chain overshifted the big cog and jammed the wheel, breaking 3 spokes and sending me down hard. I had to reconstruct this story later from the physical evidence because I remember nothing from the time I left the house until the trip home from the ER. The concussion wasn't too serious; but 3 months later I was nearly killed by the resulting subdural hematoma; it was repaired in an emergency surgery. And now I have some titanium bolts in my skull

"Dork disk"? No, I haven't installed one on my Raleigh, but I think about it. And I don't laugh at them.

RSBG

My God, that's quite a story. I'm thinking about it too. And, I don't laugh at them either, but that's primarily because I've never even thought about them in the first place, until I noticed mine was missing. I sure as hell don't care about how it looks to have one, or what anyone else thinks about me having one on my bike.

I just thought of something else. The bike shop left mine off, without telling me. When I asked them about it, they told me it was not needed, and they never use them. If I crash and hurt myself, it seems like that puts the shop in a pretty bad position. It seems like this must be something they should be aware of.

jim hughes

Obviously they're not needed IF the rear derailleur is correctly adjusted. In my case, the low gear limit screw in the '79 Campy RD had gradually backed out on its own, over a long period of time. Nothing is likely to alert you to the fact that this is happening until it gets to the point of overshifting. I'd like to find a disk that fits my hub, is clear plastic so as not to be too visible, and is no larger in diameter than necessary. They weigh next to nothing and there is no reason not to use one unless it's ugly.

TonyA

I've looked it over very carefully, sighting from every angle and holding straightedges against everything, and I can't find any sign of bending.

The new wheel cost $50. Going by that chart, the spokes are SLE. I only replaced the rear. The front wheel is just like the old rear wheel, and though it's probably 20 or 30 years old and the spokes are rusty none of them have broken.

I've just become aware of another riding habit that may be affecting this spoke breakage and also the bearing retainer being blown out and the spindle race badly chewed up in one spot on the drive side of the bottom bracket -- I've been dismounting and standing on the left pedal while coasting to a stop. Longer and longer distances, trying to see how far I can go. I never thought about it before, but it occurred to me today that it's pretty abusive. Or is that normal?

mrrabbit 

The Shun Lih spokes will hold up okay on the new wheel IF the wheel has had approximately 20 more minutes of work done on it to ensure proper tension.

=8-)

davidad

They are called spoke protectors for a reason. It's foolish to ride without one. One dropped chain can nick half of the DS spokes setting them up for notch failure.

seymourson

Ritchey OCR Pro, 20 front radial laced. 24 rear, drive side 3x laced, non drive side radial laced. Breaking spokes on front and rear.

FBinNY 

and your point is....?

seymourson

Great advice! Thanks, you're a genius! Why didn't I think of that?

seymourson

Ritchey OCR Pro, 20 front radial laced. 24 rear, drive side 3x laced, non drive side radial laced. Breaking spokes on front and rear.

seymourson

Sorry, posted w/ out quote.