Originally Posted by
Jeff Neese
Any time someone reports broken spokes, people start thinking along the lines of "better" spokes or "stronger" rims, sometimes higher spoke count, but the main factor in creating a strong wheel is how they're built. Chances are you have perfectly fine wheels. When someone says they started breaking spokes and they had someone replace all of them, it's not actually the new spokes that solved the problem, it's the fact that the wheel was rebuilt better. Most experienced wheelbuilders (as well as many articles and videos) will tell you that spoke tension is the single most important factor in how strong the wheel is. Even low-end DT 2.0 spokes and single-wall rims can be built into a strong wheel that doesn't break spokes.
That’s just not true. Yes, tension is important but it’s just not the end all/be all of a strong wheel. The article I linked to in post 13 doesn’t mention tension at all. The article is written by Ric Hjertberg who is the founder of Wheelsmith who knows a thing or two about building wheels. People who claim that tension is all that is needed for building a strong wheel or boast about never having broken a spoke probably aren’t large riders or riders who carry large loads or aren’t large riders that carry large loads. Personally, I know how to build wheels with high tension and I still broke spokes on a very regular basis. I carried…and used…several spokes on all my bikes all the time up until the early 2000s. I don’t carry spokes any more nor do I need to because I started building all my wheels with triple butted spokes in the early 2000s. I didn’t use any different tension before or after going to more durable spokes. The only thing that changed was the spoke.
You bought a bike online and most wheels these days are machine-built, which can be hit or miss. Replace all the spokes if you must, but you could probably save yourself a lot of money by just making sure your existing wheels are properly built. Personally I never just install and ride on "out of the box" wheels - they need to be put on a stand and checked for true and tension. That's the part that didn't happen with your bike.
Being machine built is part of the problem but not necessarily the only problem. A 140 lb rider could probably just check the tension and go ride the wheels for decades. A 200+ lb rider can’t. The parts are just not up to the task at hand.