Bicycle Mechanics - Broke spoke rear wheel. . . sigh

Hi, new hybrid bike here Fuji Crosstown. I'm a clyde 319 and shrinking fast. I've put over 300 road miles on the bike. Rear spoke snapped at hub today and wheel is now bad out of true.

I'm taking it to the LBS Monday, I'm kind of unique as far as their customers are concerned size wise. Just so I know - and I can be clear - should I be asking them to:

1. Fix the spoke.
2. Retension all the spokes
3. True the wheel

Anyone know is this time consuming and or pricey? I know you can't speak for my shop - but just in general so I know what the ballpark is.

Does this mean I'm going to have continued trouble from this wheel? Should I order a second to have handy to swap? I hate being down, I've done 10 a day for over a month now.

It would sure be worth asking them to check the wheels for tension and suggest if anything more than replacing the spoke is required. Machine built wheels just don't seem to come properley tensioned in my experience and that can certainly have side effects when they are pushed like with someone of your weight. But once brought up to snuff they SHOULD be fine. This assumes that the bike shop guy is decent at working on wheels. If you can I'd look into which shops in your area have a good rep for working on wheels. Not all of them will qualify on this count.

And all the best on the weight loss and fitness gain program. With 21 gone you're off to a great start! It's one thing to go along with the "I"m fine as I am" political correctness stuff but Nature is not politcally correct and just doesn't care. Your body will certainly thank you in many ways over the years to come for your efforts. Hopefully you get your wheel back into action soon and can carry on with the fun.

If you run into further troubles with it and feel the need to get a spare wheelset may I suggest a set intended for 29'er mountain bikes? They are 700c compatible and should fit right onto your hybrid with no issue at all. In fact likely they are much the same sort of wheels you have already. But in this case you'll want to ensure that the rims are a box section if your present ones are a simple U channel style. I'm currently running a set of this style of wheels with 28's on my cross town touring cyclocross bike. I laugh at potholes with this combo unless they are big enough to swallow me and the bike whole :D The wheelset was a paltry $110 off ebay. But I did find that I needed to touch up the truing. I actually stress relieved the spokes well right out of the box and then ran around them a few times tensioning and truing to really dial them in. A set of wheels done in this way would most certainly serve you well and prove trouble free for long periods. And if indeed your present rims are the simple and basic U section instead of a box section then a better wheelset may well be worth the trouble. As you lose more weight it'll be come less important but for now it may be just what you need. If the old wheels keep on with their shenanigans this would be a good way to go.

You need at least 36 double butted spokes tensioned to about 110kg to have any chance of few problems.
Since it is a new bike they should fix it for free, if you bought it from them.

+1 on davidad. New bike, new wheel should be under warranty.

One broken spoke may not be a bad sign, but be sure the spokes are tight after you pick up the wheel.

Two broken spokes is a borderline situation.

Three broken spokes means time for a new wheel.

One broken spoke may not be a bad sign, but be sure the spokes are tight after you pick up the wheel.

Two broken spokes is a borderline situation.

Three broken spokes means time for a new wheel.

True words there.

The issue being that if they were marginally tightened in the first place then a number of them have been subjected to going slack as they come around each time. This lets the spoke flex too much in a bad way for too many times. It's like bending the paper clip back and forth until it breaks. If there is a bunch of them that were too loose then this one is just the first one that is near the fatigue point.

But let's not create situations where there may not be any. Get the spoke replaced and have the wheel gone over for tension and true and see what happens. Very likely this will be the last trouble you have. If not then deal with it as we've suggested above.