rpenmanparker 

I find spoke count to be irrelevant to frequency of spoke breakage. The tensions are the same in each spoke whether 20 spokes or 40 spokes. The compression of the wheel and fleeting detensioning of the spokes is the same when the wheel revolves or hits a bump regardless of the number of spokes. Those are the things that influence breakage.

vinnyvincent

Yeah I guess the real problem is I waited so long to say something and for all they know I've been using it for downhill mountain biking at this point. Oh well live and learn. I think next time I'll just buy a frame and build my own if this is what the component warranty experience is like

big john

I haven't read the thread but I have been breaking wheels and spokes for decades, something about the way I ride. I used to carry spokes on rides, and this was when using 36 spoke MA40 wheels.
Eventually I found a wheelbuilder who took the time to build the wheels correctly and I think this is the key, find the right guy.
I still break stuff, but now I at least get a reasonable service life out of hand built wheels.

ptempel

I went to Velocity A23 rims, Ultegra hubs, 32-spoke. Got the on Ebay for a little over $300. Search for "Velocity a23 wheelset" and you'll see it. No problems so far and the rear wheel seems to be holding its shape. In the last year or so I have also broken a spoke on two different wheels in the front. So not sure I'd go much less than 28 spoke on the front either.

GeoKrpan

I have a cheap set of wheels that came on a BD bike and they are bullet proof, Weinmann DP18 30mm rims, 32 spokes.

If I had gotten a bike with the Alex R450 I would have factored in the cost of new wheels. They simply aren't strong enough for a 200 lb rider, like you and me.

Get some Shimano wheels. They are well built right out of the box and they are not expensive.

MRT2

OK, here is my take on things.

1. You saved a few bucks going with Bikes Direct. They need to make money somehow, apparently by skimping on wheels.

2. In general, wheels are a weak point on lower priced bikes and something you might want to watch over time and consider replacing eventually. Your experience with Wal Mart bikes is not really relevant. Higher performance wheels are a whole other kettle of fish, and besides, how many miles did you actually ride those Wal Mart bikes?

3. But all that said, when you buy a new bike from a bike shop, you are relying on their mechanics to true the wheels if they are not perfectly true right out of the box. And they are frequently not perfectly true out of the box. I have seen this myself, as I was at my LBS last year watching the mechanic pull brand new machine made wheels out of the box. Even I could see how out of true they were. So when you go with a bikes direct bike, you need to either take the bike to a skilled bike mechanic to check the wheels, or do it yourself.

4. As for whether spokes and rims are covered under warranty, it really depends. Years ago, I bought a bike from a LBS. Broke the first spoke in the second week. Took it back to the bike shop and they replaced it under warranty. Broke a second spoke a few weeks later. Bike shop replaced it again under warranty. Broke a third spoke a couple of days later. Bike shop rebuilt the entire wheel with new spokes. under warranty. I never paid a dime for the rebuilt wheel. More recently, I cracked a rim on a bike after two years of use. Bike shop declined to replace as the bike was two years old and they said rims and spokes, like tires, brakes, and chains are subject to wear and tear. They did, however, work with me to replace the rim with a higher quality hand build wheel.

While it would be nice for bikes direct to send you a new wheel, apparently they feel within their rights not to do so. You saved a few bucks buying online, so now you really need to just suck it up and get yourself a decent wheel set.

vinnyvincent

Yeah I pretty much came tot he conclusion that expecting bikes direct to replace the wheel on a bike that was so cheap to begin with is unreasonable.
True I've never had problems with wheels from wal mart bikes, but most of those were MTB's and they did not come with sora components, so I could see where BD would need to essentially put temporary use wheels on to compensate.

Anyways thanks @rpenmanparker he was kind enough to look the wheels over for me and suggest I buy new ones and get the old ones repaired as a back up set.
I was going to order the vuelta corsa HD's, but instead I opted to go with the Shimano WH-R-501A wheels from REI, due to REI's exceptional 1 year no hassle warranty. I figure worst case if I break them for any reason within a year, at least I can return them, even if the shimano wheels are perhaps not as durable as the vuelta's, the return policy is what sold me.
The price was right too. They were only 110 leaving me able to buy a set of continental ultra sports with new tubes for the same price as the vuelta's.

I had the guy at REI check the tension and once I break them in I will take them back to rpenmanparker and he is going to check them out/repair my old wheels.

Thanks for you input everyone! it's been priceless advice.

vinnyvincent

Oh one more thing. Should I be getting new brake pads for the new wheels?

Miele Man

Interesting.

If something breaks on a bike soon after getting it that's the time to contact the seller. Once someone else works on something like wheels the original seller has no way of knowing what caused the original problem.

In another post in this thread you mentioned breaking the chain too. Did you ever overshift the chain into the spokes of the wheel?

Where did the spokes break? At the elbow, at the nipple or somewhere else?

Cheers

ckindt

I ended up with a dud wheelset on a $1000 mountain bike from one of the big bike companies. I busted a spoke while riding in a non-aggressive style and couldn't figure why my back wheel wouldn't stay true - ever.
I bought a wheel truing stand and a tension gauge. The first step in the instruction was to check my spoke gauge. I did and I found my wheels were built with a combination of 1.8mm and 2.0mm spokes for no rhyme or reason - a real head-scratcher.

I took the wheels back to the shop for a warranty replacement.
Could be your problem?

FBinNY 

Many builders use different gauge spokes in the same wheel, the most common example is to use lighter spokes on the left side of the rear wheel to compensate for the tension differential that the dish (asymmetry) causes.

Ir's also possible that a single spoke got mixed into the batch of spokes laid out in the wheel lacing stock, but I can't imagine a scenario where a wheel would be built with more than one errant spoke mixed in randomly.

ckindt

Trust me. I tried to rationalize this, but there was no pattern and this was on both front and rear wheels. The bike shop mechs didn't understand either and the brand rep offered only a new wheel set and an apology.

I think boxes of different gauge spokes were dropped at the place of assembly and the worker picked all of them up and resumed building wheels.