Fat arse on small bike - another broken spoke on my Downtube Mini rear wheel
 

I've only myself to blame, being well over the weight for the bike, but this is my 3rd spoke broken. Would Big Apples, run soft, help at all?

Wow. Are you sure the spokes were tight originally? I understand that if spoke tension is too loose, they all "flex" over time and are susceptible to breaking. So, all your spokes may be weakend. You may want to replace them all and make sure they're nice and tight. I would think that's cheaper than buying a set of Big Apples. 16" wheels, with their short spoke lengths, will surely be able to handle your weight.

I'm not trying to discourage you from the Big Apples, mind you. I have them on my Mini and like them A LOT.

sammy are you carrying a lot of luggage, on the rack I mean, out of interest ? And how much hammer do you give the mini generally speaking. Out of interest, that is - can't help tyrewise.

I had spoke tension problems with my Downtube 8H and I wasn't anywhere near overweight for it. Perhaps the wheel wasn't that well pretensioned in the 1st place?

and Sesamecrunch please don't blame my calf muscles lol!

That's exactly where I was going....:roflmao2:

Could also be the gauge of the spokes, I get strong ones for all my wheels, whether small or NORMAL, and my LBS has one of the best bike mechanics around to build them up.

Sammyboy, you're not that big........We've all seen you...NAKIE :eek::eek:

252 pounds - heavy enough! World Naked Bike Ride is coming up again shortly; this year me and the missus are riding the tandem, but all my Downtubes are going, on loan to other people.

It could be poorly tensioned - after the first breakage I checked that the tension was even, but I did that musically, I don't have a tension meter. I could rebuild it with heavier gauge spokes I suppose, and spring for a tension meter too. I haven't been carrying much weight on the rack recently, perhaps 6 pounds, and I don't hammer it too hard, and try not to lead-arse it through potholes!

I think small wheels are actually supposed to be stronger than large wheels, so it's probably poor tension, old spokes, or some other cause that has lead to breakage.

One issue with the rear wheel is that the tension meters -- I have the park tool model -- that I have seen don't fit assuming that you have at least a 1x pattern. I don't think that you can find swaged spokes in that small size which would put less stress on the bends.