Originally Posted by
grumpus
Is your wheel laced with butted or aero spokes or just plain gauge, and j-bend or straight pull? Exactly where and how have they failed? You might find that replacing the spokes with lighter butted ones on the NDS, and maybe triple butted on the drive side, will result in better balance of tension. Or you could just build some 36h wheels for touring.
I think they are pretty ordinary spokes: plain gauge, j-bend. They all have snapped near the hub (the arc of the j is always gone, leaving just a straight rod behind). I have been replacing them with what should be the equivalent, as deemed by my local bike shop.
I'll also add that I have had spokes break on both sides of the wheel, drive side + non-drive side.
I called Jenson who suggested I submit a claim through them to the bike company, but they seemed fairly apathetic about it all.
I went to my local bike shop to get some more replacement spokes (just to keep it rideable while perusing warranty claims and possible replacements). I talked to two mechanics. The first mechanic, after looking it over, seemed barely concerned about breaking 3 spokes in such a short distance/time ("oh, it's definitely unusual, but these things happen, we could take a look at it for you and maybe put some thread locker on to prevent the spokes from coming loose"). The second mechanic barely glanced at the wheel, saw it was stock WTB wheel, and immediately poo-pooed it as worthless ("It's a cheap WTB wheel, you're just going to keep breaking the spokes no matter what we do, it's just going to self-destruct. You should upgrade to this $400 wheel we have right here.").