rankin116

I know there are a few threads about wheels already today, but none answered my quesitons.

On the commute yesterday, noticed I had a broken spoke. Took the wheel to the LBS today, and the guy asked me if it had broken a spoke before. I said that I think so, maybe last year. He then said if it happens again, I should really think about replacing the wheel. Why would I need to do that? I have Vuelta Stylus Corsa rims (I think) and Sora hubs. 700 x 23 tires. No idea about the spokes. Rear wheel. 215lbs. Raleigh 500 Road Sport (used, Ebay)

Al1943

Not familliar with your particular rims but Sora is Shimano's lowest priced component group. Your LBS is probably implying that the wheel may not be worth the cost of a re-build and a new wheel would be a better investment. Check for small cracks in the rim near the spoke holes. If the rim is developing cracks then it's a sure bet that the rim needs replacing and if so a new wheel would certainly be the best option. If the rim has NO cracks then try to keep the spokes tight, the rim true, grease the bearings, and ride on.

Al

carpediemracing 

I'd recommend the same thing. It seems your LBS guy is well educated in both bike mechanics and customer service.

Spokes have a limited lifespan, just like, say, light bulbs and windshield wipers. If you use the spokes evenly (i.e. they're all about the same tension), you "use up" their effective life at about the same rate. Just like light bulbs and wipers.

As an example, my fiance's car's left headlight bulb blew about two months ago. I recommended getting two bulbs since the two bulbs go on and off at the same time and therefore I'd expect the right to go shortly as well. We bought two bulbs but I replaced only one since I didn't have a lot of time (it was getting dark, the right side has the battery in the way, tired, etc). About a month later the right side went. This means they went about 1 month apart in 60 months - probably right in the range of the bulb's expected lifespan. I installed the other bulb (which was sitting patiently in her glove box). Now we have about 5 years before it happens again (it's a 2002 car).

The LBS person asked a good question - "Have you broken a spoke before?". One spoke breaking might be normal although outside the bell curve. I'd give a one in whatever spoke count (32?) chance that you'd have a slightly defective or otherwise "different" spoke, one that has a significantly shorter lifespan than the others. On my fiance's car, if a bulb went after 3 years, I'd be surprised and probably replace only one. Five years? Well, that is a while, and so we figured on replacing both.

In your case, on the second broken spoke, I'd figure I'm approaching the end of *all* the spokes' usable lifespan. Instead of replacing one spoke at a time (and complaining more and more to the LBS about their "crappy wheel truing jobs" or some other misguided criticism), you'd be much happier "resetting the clock" on all the spokes, not just one (or in your case, two) spokes.

I learned this the hard way and now will promptly rebuild a wheel with all new spokes even if I only break one - my last one was a Reynolds DV on which two spokes broke in rapid succession (the wheels were less than 2 years old and bought new). It's not worth the trouble to replace one spoke and fix/true the wheel as it doesn't take too much longer to relace the whole thing.

Your LBS guy recommended a "new wheel" if your recollection is accurate. Why would he do that?

If your rim is found to be even slightly bent or worn, it's usually cost effective to replace it. He may have made a judgment call that your rim is probably not in "new" shape and is doing some proactive customer service work. If he didn't recommend a new wheel, your "newly rebuilt" wheel (with your old rim) may be out of true or rapidly go out of true. To make a wheel strong, it's better to sacrifice some trueness to keep spoke tension even, and on a used rim, perhaps yours, chances are your rim is not perfect. This would, of course, give rise to another round of undeserved criticism leveled at the LBS.

A new wheel would fix all of this and would probably cost less than rebuilding your Sora hub, which, to be honest, may not be worth rebuilding (back when I had a shop, everything 105 and below had oval bearing races - so we only rebuilt Ultegra or higher - otherwise customers would complain about our crappy truing jobs causing their hubs to go out of adjustment...).

Finally, as it's the end of the 2007 season, they can probably get you a decent wheel for not that much as distributors and manufacturers clear the shelves for the new year (which starts this week with Interbike). They might be able to get you a wheel with a better hub, perhaps a better rim, good spokes, etc. for the cost of a rebuild.

hope this helps,
cdr

BikeManDan

May simply be implying that all the spokes are of low quality and should be replaced with stronger butted spokes and it would be more cost effective to replace the wheel than replace each spoke

San Rensho 

A well made wheel will last for years and years (10-15) of daily use even with just mediocre components.

Sounds to me like the tension in the wheel is too low. Classic cause of spoke breaking, especially non pulling spokes on the non drive side.

silent1

The cause of broken spokes is normally low tension, as someone else already pointed out. If you buy a prebuild wheel have someone tension it before you even put it on the bike. My personal belief is that once you ride an improperly built/tensionedl wheel it will never be right, you will always struggle to keep it true.