Originally Posted by
brawlo
How do you ride back up that hill? Do you give the bike attitude, meaning do you tend to pull on the bars to cause the bike to lay over a bit as you crank on the pedals? This is a wheel killing technique. Wheels can cop a lot of abuse in the vertical plane, but they are very susceptible to side loading. This massively increases the load on the spokes and can lead to the failures you write of.
Nope - I spin when I climb, good form, no wrestling with the bike. That's good info though so thanks.
Other than bombing downhill more than the average person, I don't think I do anything that would stress my wheels in an unusual way.