Originally Posted by
wschruba
In a round-about way, the technician may be speaking truth. If the spokes are painted, galvanized steel, they will be prone to corrosion, and breaking at those points--which often results in a spoke breaking in the middle/somewhere unexpected (ie, not the elbow). More expensive black spokes are stainless, phosphate/paint coated. That said, stainless spokes will still rust, but it takes time/salt exposure for the chromium to be 'used up'.
Without seeing the spokes, I am not qualified to give you an actual answer, but I'd place my money on corrosion. Spokes don't break in the middle from flexing, they break at the elbow. I see this all the time on coastal bikes that wind up underwater/live outside.
*edit*
If you have any reason to doubt the structural integrity of your remaining spokes, put on a pair of work gloves, and squeeze parallel spokes, hard. under normal circumstances, no damage will be done, but with wheels as I mentioned above, I have broken spokes just by squeezing.
No, the mechanic wasn't speaking truth in any way whatsoever. He was speaking what comes out of the north end of a south bound bull
As long as you are comparing similar materials, painted or coated spokes aren't more prone to corrosion than nonpainted spokes. If you are comparing two different materials, all bets are off.
Originally Posted by
Ronsonic
I've seen old wheels that just begin breaking spokes like that. Engineers will tell you that spokes don't fatigue. That's because they are engineers and believe their own numbers. I'm a technician - spokes eventually get old and tired and all need to be replaced.
I replace or completely rebuild a wheel when it gets like that.
Engineers won't tell you that spokes don't fatigue. People who misinterpret what engineers write
might tell you that an engineer won't. Jobst Brandt talks about spoke fatigue in a number of places
like here and he discusses it quite extensively in his book. For a properly built wheel, the spokes
should outlast several rims which he has also stated but the problem is that it's often difficult to find a rim of a different brand with the same ERD so spokes get replaced prematurely if the wheel is rebuilt.
Originally Posted by
FBOATSB
You need to do your due diligence to prevent being lied to by LBS techs. I recently went with these
Strong | Sapim because the only place I've ever had a spoke break was in the hook end.They are "strong"-get it? But I re laced the wheel myself. But of course YMMV. Good luck!
P.S. Your spokes are breaking cuz their shot! Maybe the wheels to I couldn't say. When I here "These are the only spokes we use here cuz there good enough" (and I've heard that twice this year) from a LBS I cross them off my list
The Strongs aren't a bad choice although a triple butted spoke with a 1.8mm middle section offers some advantages over the Strong's 2.0mm middle.
Wheel Fanatyk has a really good article on using the heavier headed spoke that you find in the Strong, Wheelsmith DH13, Pillar TB2018 spokes or DT Alpine III. I've been using them since 1999 and find that my wheels are much more durable.
I've used both the Pillar and DT Alpine III and had very good luck with both. The Pillars are available from
BDop Cycling for about $0.80 each and are available in any length you want. They ship very quickly too.
The DT Alpines III tend to be much more expensive...usually around $1.50 to $2 per spoke. I recently found, however, that they are available from
Rose Bikes for the impossibly ridiculous price of $0.50 each. That's cheaper than even a straight gauge stainless steel spoke. Wh