Originally Posted by
sijray21
haha,
i broke two spokes at the nipple. i talked with the mechanics that fixed the spokes and i think the likely cause was inconsistent tension throughout the wheel since they were likely tensioned through mass-production. i had the rear wheel completely re-tensioned and i haven't had an issue yet. the main issue i had was actually obtaining the proprietary spoke from Shimano (had a loaner wheel for about 5 weeks) so i wanted to pick up a spare wheelset with spokes that are easier to find.
do you think this is the case? the RS-10s have a low spoke count: front 16, rear 20
Being an old-fart wheelbuilder (30 years' experience) I'm prejudiced against low-spoke-count wheels. It's tension variation
while riding that causes metal fatigue, which leads to spke breakage. More spokes, and interlaced spokes, allow several spokes to share the tension changes as the wheel rolls. This leads to less tension variation, less metal fatigue, and ultimately a more durable wheel.
Since I learned this, and re-learned to build wheels with high, even spoke tension, I haven't broken a single spoke that wasn't damaged some other way (shifted the chain into the spokes a couple times, which lead to some breakage). That's a pretty good track record for a fat-arsed recumbent-riding Clyde.