Are they 24 spoke wheels? When I weighed in at 220 I gave up on road bikes 20 years ago when I popped spokes every ride.
I think they were 32 spoke but I do think the wheel technology has improved greatly since then. I went to MTB's with 32 spoke
wheels and have only broken 1 spoke (lately I have popped the heads off a lot of nipples (1 every 1-2 rides) on a powertap hub with a
Stans Olympic rim, but I changed all the nipples and so far no breaks on 5 rides).
Why don't you replace them yourself, it isn't that difficult. Especially when you only have to retrue 1 spoke.
Do you ride the wheel home when it is broken, I think that can put extra stress on the remaing spokes leading to early failure
in them.
I recently bought a road bike (and I am 260+) and bought a training wheelset of 32 spoke mavic open pros on DA hubs, and have had no problem with those.
I even ventured out on the 20 spoke front 24 rear Bontragers that came with the bike, and surprisingly they have stayed true even over
some pretty crappy potholed/cracked streets.
so I suggest
1) DIY spoke replacement.
2) get some 32 spoke wheels.
Last edited by gbg; 09-26-10 at 08:26 PM.