New wheels or repair rear wheel again?

gribas

Hi folks,

I am a newbie forum user, I'm from Barcelona but currently I'm living in Dublin, Ireland.

I have a Giant Defy 2 2013 and I'm commuting everyday about 15km 10 miles. Since two months ago I had problems with my rear wheel broking spokes. Last friday I broke another one, the fourth one. I went to the cycle shop and I replaced the broken spokes each time that I broke one, my mechanic align the wheel eachtime so the wheel seems to work correcty. The wheelset is the giant sr2.

Everytime that I change a spoke is about 15 euro, 12 GBP so I am thinking if it's worth repairing this wheel or maybe it's better to buy a new wheelset. Or maybe is not well threaded and I need to try it in another bicycle shop?

I'm commuting with 25c tyres and I am 90kg (195 lbs) so I don't want a special performance wheels just for commuting and have fun with my bike.

I am thinking to buy something like 6800 ultegra wheelset that I read some reviews and they are bombproof.

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ie/e ... prod109835

Thanks for your help.

Happy xmas!

dork_knight

Hi gribas,

I guess it would depend how much life the rim has left in it and if it's worth the cost of a rebuild, if the rebuild will be relatively cheap and the rim has a good amount of miles left then this might be the better option.

As an example the following wheelset is very good value for the money which might also be worth considering;
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shim ... prod121540

I ran this wheelset when I was over 200 lbs and I didn't have any issues with them.

If you do want to change the wheels and you have a budget close to the cost of the set you've linked to, then you could probably have a good set of handbuilts (Ultegra Hubs, Archetype Rims 32/32 Spoke) for close to £300.

patrickf

You'll probably find that either the spokes are fatigued or your LBS don't know how to build wheels properly (not unusual).

When I had my LBS retension a wheel after a spoke unwound I found that they hadn't balanced spoke tension correctly and didn't appear to understand spoke twist (as evidenced by pinging when I first got on the bike). It's uneven spoke tension that will kill spokes.

Did you hear any noises from the wheel when you first used it after it had been to the LBS?

Those Ultegra wheels are fine, but for solid everyday wheels I'd suggest something with more spokes - 28/32 front and 32 rear would be better.

gribas

Thanks for your reply Dork Knight and patrickf!!!

The wheel (and all the bike) has around 9000km (5593 miles). I will give it a try and check in another shop. Any idea how much it costs rebuild the wheel?

Thanks!

dork_knight

I would have thought a rebuild with standard silver spokes would cost around £25/£30, if any bearings need to be replaced you may as well have them done at the same time ~ If the rim doesn't have much life left on it, check to see if it has a wear indicator somewhere on the rim, you should ask yourself if a rebuild with the current or a new rim is worth it against a cheap set of new wheels like the Shimano R500/R501 series.

The Rookie

Learn to replace a spoke, it costs about a pound for a stock spoke and takes about 5 mins to fit it, that price for replacing one spoke is outrageous!