Originally Posted by
headwind15
I am 5'-6" and 135 pounds with a minimum amount of gear and was touring around Durango Colorado a few years ago on my Windsor Tourist with 36 spoked wheels and had several spokes break in short succession. I think they are spec'd with really low grade (stainless) spokes.
I ended up going crazy and built a 48 spoked rear wheel. I probably should have replaced them with (stronger) D.T. spokes., as I do not believe I have ever broken a D.T. spoke.
your experience is unusual compared to my experiences over the last nearly 35 years of touring and riding regularly commuting with heavy panniers.
It is highly likely that your wheels were not tensioned properly and gradually lost tension , or the wheelset had other issues (bad tensioning, not true etc etc) as I have ridden for years and years on similar wheels with no issues at all.
most riders I know buy a bike and never have the spokes checked for tension, which as most wheels are machine built and can be just so so tension wise, its fairly common over time for them to not be at their best.
someone our weight and not touring with a 100lbs of stuff on a bike should absolutely not need a 48 spoked wheel--again, I'm just comparing my experiences to yours.
also, some riders are just hard on things, never unweight a bike when going into potholes or whatever, or ride hard and fast into holes, jump off curbs etc. Not saying you do this, but I know lots of riders who are like this and have no clue that they are making life hard for their wheels.