Touring - Rear Wheel

My T2000 has a few thousand miles on it. Last summer, I popped one spoke on a local ride. Then on tour, I busted another. The wheel has a slight wobble to it (not detectable while riding) and me dinking around with a spoke wrench couldn't fix it. I dropped it off at the lbs, but the guy didn't think it was much and returned the wheel to me, no charge. I'm a little nervous about a loaded tour with this wheel, but don't know how to go about fixing it. Do I just get a whole new wheel? Do I have all the spokes replaced? Do I do it myself? I don't know any bike store anywhere within 100 miles that is big into touring to trust the wheel to.

My T2000 has a few thousand miles on it. Last summer, I popped one spoke on a local ride. Then on tour, I busted another. The wheel has a slight wobble to it (not detectable while riding) and me dinking around with a spoke wrench couldn't fix it. I dropped it off at the lbs, but the guy didn't think it was much and returned the wheel to me, no charge. I'm a little nervous about a loaded tour with this wheel, but don't know how to go about fixing it. Do I just get a whole new wheel? Do I have all the spokes replaced? Do I do it myself? I don't know any bike store anywhere within 100 miles that is big into touring to trust the wheel to.
Where are you touring? How remote are you going to get? Those are the factors I would take into consideration.

I'd carry a fiberspoke, if you pop another, then you can limp it to a bike shop.

Spokes can suffer from metal fatigue; when this happens, you can rebuild the wheel with all-new spokes (just did this last year for my tourer)—see Sheldon Brown's article on wheelbuilding. Replacing the rim is probably not required. I would wait and make sure it's necessary, though; two spokes in a year is annoying, but not unheard of.

For the tour, I'd go ahead with it. I would take along four or so extra spokes—this is usually a good idea anyways—the best way is to electrical-tape them to a seatstay—and also a fiberspoke in case you need a quick-and-dirty solution. If you do break a spoke on tour, it's not the end of the world. If it's on the non-drive side, pull over and thread a new spoke through. If it's on the drive side, evaluate whether the wheel is usable without the spoke (36 gives some redundancy); if not, fiberspoke it and take it to a shop.

Where are you touring? How remote are you going to get?

Icefield Parkway, down through Kananaskis and over Highwood Pass then up to Calgary. I also want to do some other recreation rides with it (still debating which bike to take for an overnight trip from the Quad Cities to Dubuque and back next month).

They were both drive side spokes. I carry my gear plus part of my wife's and I'm also a big guy (by biking standards) and tend to grind out some hills with leg power that I should be spinning up. Then I hear many say that once some go, they all go because the opposite spokes have now had extra stress.

Icefield Parkway, down through Kananaskis and over Highwood Pass then up to Calgary. I also want to do some other recreation rides with it (still debating which bike to take for an overnight trip from the Quad Cities to Dubuque and back next month).

They were both drive side spokes. I carry my gear plus part of my wife's and I'm also a big guy (by biking standards) and tend to grind out some hills with leg power that I should be spinning up. Then I hear many say that once some go, they all go because the opposite spokes have now had extra stress.
In that case, given the remote location, I'd say rebuild AND carry fiberspoke as well as some standards (double Butted, by the way). Especially given the heavy load. Better safe than sorry!:eek:

Newbie question -- what is a fiberspoke?

No such thing as a dumb or newbie question in my book, how else will you ever find anything out?:D
http://www.gaerlan.com/bikeparts/acc/tool/fbrspoke.gif

FiberFix Spoke - An emergency kevlar string to replace a broken spoke in emergency situations.

http://www.gaerlan.com/bikeparts/acc/tool/tool.html