Lost weight, breaking spokes now.....

danowat

Over the last few weeks I've broken 3 spokes, in 3 different pairs of wheels (all rears), a shimano R500, a Mavic CXP33 and an Easton EA70.

I'm at least 10kg down on what I was last year riding on the same wheels, now I would say it could be down to mechanical fatigue, I must have at least 5000miles on the Mavics, about 2000 on the Eastons, but less than 1000 on the R500's.

Anyone got any ideas?, and any recommendations for a pair of bulletproof training/commuting/audaxing wheels?

racingcondor

I suspect freakish bad luck that they've all happened so close together.

All you can really do is to have the spokes replaced, everything de and retensioned and hope the other spokes weren't damaged by the breaks. Rear wheels do take a hell of a lot more abuse than fronts though so it's no big surprise that it's those spokes going.

cougie

Must be coincidence surely. You'll prob not break any for a decade now.

danowat

I hope it's coincidence, 2 I could probably put down to coincidence, but a 3rd starts to make me wonder, the last one went 65km into a 105km audax, and the last 40km was intersting!.

Plus my LBS charges £10 a pop for replacing a spoke......

JohnCleland

It must be all the extra power you`r putting down. 8)

I broke my first spoke on my rear wheel during my first Audax, 20k into a 2AAA-100. The wheel was so out of shape it wore the pads down to nothing. :shock:

MaxwellBygraves

Yes, perhaps you are now lighter, but presumably a more powerful rider? Could this be a factor?

ETA: I always find it odd when I hear of spoke snappings and the like. I'm bigger than most but have never had a single spoke/wheel failure accross the board...

2Phat4Rapha

All drive-side rear, broken at the elbow?

danowat

2Phat4Rapha wrote:

All drive-side rear, broken at the elbow?

Hmm....interesting.....

Yes, all driveside, 2 out of the 3 at the "elbow" (I assume you mean hub end?) 1 at the nipple.

I am not an overly powerfull rider, between 375-400w MAP

2Phat4Rapha

Failure at the elbow (hub end) is almost always fatigue caused by too little tension - yes, too little. Have a good wheel builder replace the spoke but check the overall tension is both high enough and evened out from spoke to spoke on each side. Note: the NDS average tension will likely be significantly lower than the DS. This is normal.

Don't know about the breakage at the nipple.

racingcondor

Breakage at the nipple is often too few spokes (causing flex under acceleration). I have personal experience of this having just detroyed some SRAM AL30's (Great rims, too few spokes. Huge. Waste. Of. Money.) and I'm 70kg (SRAM if you're reading this make them 20/24 and 2 cross on the drive side!).

At the hub end (J bend) it's low tension allowing the spoke to become slack under compression and then spring back on the J, eventually cracks appear and you break the spoke.

I'm not surprised that the R500's went, 20/24 and Shimano rear hubs mean it's hard to get a lot of tension in the non-drive side spokes. Looking at the wheels the Eastons should have enough spokes for most people (24/28), could be a poor build or just bad luck. The Mavic CPX33 is just the rim so I can't comment (how many spokes?).

If you want some bullet proof wheels I'd recommend hand builts, more spokes (either 28/32 or 32/36 it's a trade-off of weight vs durability) and 3 cross on the rear wheel.

EDIT - For factory built wheels Fulcrum 3's seem to be pretty tough despite the low spoke count. RS80's get a lot of love on here but are only just strong enough for me so I can't recommend them for anyone heavier.

rick_chasey

Some excellent knowledge here.

Impressed.

starlet_gt

I'm 62kg and I've broken 3 spokes on my Easton EA70 rear in the last 3-4 months =/

SimonRees73

starlet_gt wrote:

I'm 62kg and I've broken 3 spokes on my Easton EA70 rear in the last 3-4 months =/

Most of them have been when I have been out with you lol Lucky I had a spoke key with me last weekend as we where in the middle of nowhere & miles from home when your spoke broke.

yaya

racingcondor wrote:

EDIT - For factory built wheels Fulcrum 3's seem to be pretty tough despite the low spoke count. RS80's get a lot of love on here but are only just strong enough for me so I can't recommend them for anyone heavier.

Agree about the 3's, their really tough (I'm 90kg, ride on rubbish country roads and get out of the saddle quite a lot on the hills)

But after 18 month and several thousands of miles the rear has started loosing nipples...it only happened twice so far and it was on the non-drive side. The interesting thing is that the wheel did not go completely out of whack and I could still ride home. This I think shows how strong they are...

The annoying thing is that because there are no holes in the rim it is quite tricky to find the nipple. LBS charges ~20-23 quid to fix it. The manual said you should use a magnet...need to find a big one and carry it with me I suppose :-)

Or I might look for a rear 5...it's only 100g heavier and has got a few more spokes (and holes in the rim!)

racingcondor

The Fulcrum 5 is a much less stiff wheel. Still a pretty strong wheelset overall, just flexy in comparison to the F3.

I used to love my Fulcrum 3's. Put a lot of miles into them (probably around 10,000 miles) racing and training in all weather conditions (enough that I pitted the cones, had noticable corrosion around the nipples and destroyed the freehub). I think I only once noticed that they weren't totally true.

alwaystoohot

I have DT Swiss 1850, a wheel calibrated for folks with 'fuller figures'. Great wheels, very happy and excellent reviews all over the net.