Originally Posted by
HillRider
Hmmm, to me a road wheel with 3000 miles is still brand new. "A lot" starts at about 25,000 miles and goes up from there.
The earliest I've ever broken a spoke was on the OEM wheels that came with an '85 Bridgestone 400. These were low cost factory wheels with no-name galvanized spokes and the first one (DS rear wheel) broke at over 8500 miles. Since then I've used DT and Wheelsmith and never broke another on several wheel sets that went well over 30,000 miles each and were retired because the rim's brake tracks were worn.
My take on the OP's EA70's agrees with Drew Eckhardt. Spokes do not stretch and the wheels were inadequately tensioned and stress relieved as delivered.
you have been lucky
i can recall several models mass produced bikes
from several different manufacturers
where two months of regular use starts popping spokes
perhaps these wheels were not properly tensioned
or the spokes were a bad batch
as is often claimed
but none of them got anywhere close to 8000 miles