Gummomarx

A spoke is breaking on my Giant S-R2 rear wheel, every other trip. I'd bought the wheel "new" from eBay 2½ years ago. It's predecessor (also an S-R2) lasted twice as long before a spoke broke – no, I haven’t gained weight.

I see no way round buying a new rear wheel so I need your advice. I’m fairly handy at replacing parts but fairly bambozled about ensuring compatibility between them.

My rear cassette is a Shimano CS-HG500 10-Speed.

An online retailer chatter recommended the Fulcrum Racing 900 C17 Road Wheelset - he said nothing about needing a spacer to drop 11 speed to 10 speed which I found later mentioned by one of the reviewers.

Can anyone untangle me from the jargon - please?

Iride01 

Have you taken the wheel to a shop that has a experienced wheel builder or a mechanic with lots of wheel experience? Maybe everything else on the wheel is wrong and that is why that spoke broke. And it might be as simple as undoing all the spokes and then tensioning them and truing the rim. Might cost you 20 bucks or a tad more here.

What jargon? It only looks like a name of a product to me.

Or is this the jargon?

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If the free hub handles all those cassette speeds then spacers will be involved. Or at some point in the ordering process they'll ask for you to specify.

deacon mark

Spoke should not normally break and certainly not often such as every other ride. Sounds like the wheel has serious issues and needs to be looked at by someone who knows wheels. It is not complicated but requires some skill and diagnosis. Tension around the spokes being relatively even is one thing to check. My guess is the wheel is not built that well but some wheels can have inherent problems. Replacing parts is not like building a good wheel. That requires skill and experience, and in neck of the woods many mechanics at the LBS really do not know how to deal with wheels.

Gummomarx

I've just bought this wheelset after recommendation on another forum - may be budget but, after 75% discount code 75WHEEL, I paid £37.50.

veganbikes

You cheated on us with another forum?

On the wheels any machine built wheel is going to a degree suck unless touched by human hands afterwards they can improve more. However you can get plenty of machine built wheels that hold up just fine for people but a handbuilt wheel be someone who knows what they are doing cannot be beat. I would just recommend on any new wheel that isn't built by hand have a experienced mechanic go over it and make sure it is properly tensioned and trued and dished and yada yada and have them check it over with some regularity and it will likely last longer.

Most of my wheels are hand built because I don't want to deal with any issues or if I have an issue I can go to the wheel builder and have them correct it. I think the only machine built wheels are from QBP but they generally have a good wheel department that goes over the wheels after building and I keep an eye on them.

Gummomarx

I promise to attend my local forum guidance counsellor.

I can afford to with the saving I've just made.

Arthur Peabody

Where does it break? At the hub or the nipple?

Gummomarx

The middle every time.

Jeff Neese

It's already been answered (correctly) but in case you need one more person telling you the same thing:

It's the spoke tension. When people start talking about breaking multiple spokes on the same wheel, it's always the spoke tension. Today's wheels are machine built and should always be given a once-over by an experienced wheelbuilder. Don't assume that every local shop has one though, so ask a lot of questions.

You do NOT need new wheels just because you're breaking spokes and in fact the new ones you're considering may have the same problem. These inexpensive wheels that are sold online are a great value and are usually made with pretty decent rims, hubs, and spokes. Just remember that they're not ready to ride when you get them, and factor the additional $20-25 to your "wheel guy" as part of the cost.

Kontact 

In my experience, one of the main things that break spokes isn't simple tension but a lack of seating the elbows so they lie against the flange instead of being under curved tension.

Gummomarx

I will indeed - thanks. The generous discount I got will more than pay for it.

Arthur Peabody

I've never broken a spoke in the middle. Are they butted?

Gummomarx

Nope.

grumpus

Middle of the spoke or middle of the wheel? I'm guessing the latter because the only time I've seen a failed spoke that wasn't broken at one end or the other was when it had been chewed by the chain.

Gummomarx

Middle of the spoke - a clean break.

Schweinhund

can you post a close up, detailed picture of the break from the side and end of break?

Gummomarx

Sorry - the bin-man (trashman) took the bins today - I'd replaced the spoke pending the arrival of the new wheels.

Schweinhund

Metal tears, metal fractures, metal breaks in different ways. Without seeing how it broke, or a picture of the wheel, everything is conjecture.