Originally Posted by
btd23
I've been having issues with my rear wheel lately. First, a couple weeks after I bought my bike in May, I had a spoke come loose. No big deal, I took it to my LBS where I bought the bike and got it sorted out. A week later, the same exact spoke came loose again. LBS sorted that out as well and it was fine for a while without an issue.
The wheel was probably built with too little tension that and made true without making tension uniform so that spoke ends up with too little tension to keep the nipple from turning as it slackens passing the bottom of the wheel. That makes the wheel building assembly line run faster with less human labor for bigger profits.
This is especially common in the rear wheel where the non-drive-side runs at a fraction of drive-side tension.
Larger (over 200 pounds) riders exacerbate the problem, although in extreme cases even 150 pounds is enough. Wheelsmith invented spokeprep so they could sell over-tensioned wheel without dealing with warranty returns from heavier riders.
If that's the case, getting uniform high tension will fix the problem; and a new otherwise identical wheel may not because it was built to the same standards.
You could also have a bend in the rim so it can't be made true with uniform tension, although that seems unlikely in a few weeks.