Originally Posted by
Hank195
Further investigation revealed that the rims are drilled with the spoke holes at a slight angle so the spoke has a straight path to the hub flange. However, the wheel was laced with the hole “pointing” to the opposite hub flange. This puts the spoke in bending as the spoke tension attempts to straighten out the misalignment and sets up a classic fatigue case for failure
I was originally experiencing this issue with the rear stock Oval wheel that came with my Fuji bike. My LBS offered the same argument specifically with that wheelset. They claimed that it was a poor design and that the spokes met the nipple at an angle from the hub. After about 4 replacements, they offered me a used DT Swiss R460 wheelset with 360 hubs that a guy had wrecked but claimed they were not damaged and were still in great condition. So they laced these for me from scratch but I’m still having the same issue. I’m not sure if it’s me, the wheels (perhaps they did sustain some damage after all), or a result of incorrect lacing pattern/irregular tensions. As I measured the kg force with my spoke tension meter, I found that they were all within a margin of 105-117kg/f. That would translate to approx 1030-1147 Newtons. The max newtons for these wheels is 1200. The DS is laced 2x with one spoke coming from the inner hub and the other spoke coming from the outer hub which laces underneath the other creating a pressure point. The NDS is radial and that’s where this one broke. I just replaced the spoke myself so we’ll see if this trend continues.