[Uprwstsdr]

So my new wheel built around a Velocity Fusion rim was finally ready this weekend. It took three weeks to get because Velocity is way back-logged. Apparently, there is too much demand for colored Dee-V's by the hipster ss crowd for them to keep up.

The wheel is beautiful and I am excited to test it out. So I meet up with the club on Sunday morning for a 42 mile ride through rolling country side in NY/CT.

I'm having a great ride, wheel feels great, all is good. Then, all of a sudden, 14 miles into the ride, I hear the dreaded, and now all too familiar, ping! A broken spoke. This is on my front wheel. This is the second spoke to break on this wheel this Summer.

The guy at the shop says that this can happen, once one goes others sometimes follow. At what point do I get the wheel re-laced, now? If another breaks?

I brought it to a different shop when the first one broke (due to logistics) and they told me this would keep happening because they were built with Wheesmith spokes. Any truth to this? Is there a big difference in spoke quality? I did some reading on-line and it seems that while each spoke brand has it supporters.

 

[lawrence]

3? Max 5. I heard a couple of years ago a bad batch of spokes came on the market and were breaking. I have a Mavic Open Pro wheel and I was breaking spokes every 75 miles, broke about 15. Mavic wouldn't guarantee it. They didn't want anything to do with me. Then the bike manufacturer had me send the wheel to a bike parts distributor and they rebuilt the wheel. I talked with the guy who was one of the managers, he never used a spoke tensionmeter. He says he goes by sound. I broke 13 more spokes. I then went to the LBS and DT bought spokes and rebuilt the wheel myself using a spoke tensionmeter. I have 3,000 miles on the wheels since I rebuilt them and I've broken 1 spoke on each of the front and back wheel. I'm a heavy guy 215 lbs and even heavier when the spokes were breaking, 240 and 220 lbs. The Mavic Open Pro wheels I have are very flexible wheels so spokes are going to break with a heavier rider.

 

[weiwentg]

The guy at the shop says that this can happen, once one goes others sometimes follow. At what point do I get the wheel re-laced, now? If another breaks?

I'd say 3.

I brought it to a different shop when the first one broke (due to logistics) and they told me this would keep happening because they were built with Wheesmith spokes. Any truth to this?

I'd say the guy was on crack.

 

[Lectron]

I'd say it's a poorly build wheel. You don't say whether it's the
elbow or by the nipple, but still. Not suppose to happen.

When building with Velocity I always prep the spoke-holes with
a Phillips driver to smoothen the sharp edges and also use good
lube. This to protect the nipples. The rims are also quite sensitive
to high flanges/tangential lacing and long nipples (epsec. if spokes
not prè bend)

As for the Wheelsmith spokes. Yes, the guy was on crack.

 

[Uprwstsdr]

They are breaking at the elbow. I am a very heavy rider, currently 260# (working my way down). The rim is a Velocity Aerohead, 32 spokes. given my current weight, I should have mentioned this originally, is this just inevitable?

I didn't believe the Wheelsmith line, that's one of the reasons I didn't bring the wheel back there.

 

[Marc]

I'd say they were poorly built--especially if you're snapping front wheel spokes. 32 spoke, deep Vees and 260#? I'd still say this build wasn't well done.

 

[Lectron]

It's hard to say without having the wheel in front of me, but elbows going that early is typical miss-match spoke-hole-spoke, under-tension or un-even tension.

Of course it can be a bad badge of spokes, but I don't believe that to be true

 

[rruff]

They are breaking at the elbow. I am a very heavy rider, currently 260# (working my way down). The rim is a Velocity Aerohead, 32 spokes. given my current weight, I should have mentioned this originally, is this just inevitable?

The Aerohead is a light rim, but that is probably ok on the front. Unless I missed it, you never said how many miles. If the build was poor, it usually takes a couple thousand miles for the spokes to start popping. Defective spokes can break quicker than that, though.

 

[Uprwstsdr]

I'd say they were poorly built--especially if you're snapping front wheel spokes. 32 spoke, deep Vees and 260#? I'd still say this build wasn't well done.

Not Deep V's, Aeroheads. The wheels are over year old and have about 2500 miles on them.