Originally Posted by gattm99
I'm a fat man, 290, and I have a few spokes that are consistantly coming loose ever few rides. I've been remembering to tighten them up every so often but I woudl really like them to stop. What appears to be happening is during a tough climb a couple of spokes are bing pulled from their nipples so that they have no tension on them. They are always easy to tighten back up and true the wheel. I am riding Mavic CXP21 wheels, 32 spokes. I guess I should probably replace the spokes that are doing this? I thought about puttign thread lock on them but figure that may not be a good idea for future maintance.
I had the same problem with a 36 spoke, 4 cross wheel I had built for me. It was a Mavic rim, but I forget the name of it. I'm a big guy too, 280-285. Basically, every 60 to 120 miles, I'd have 1 or 2 spokes very very loose, or a broken spoke. I was continually taking the wheel back to the shop that built it and they tried everything, but it never stopped happening. I eventually gave up on the wheel (and the shop for that matter, in terms of wheels... i still go there for other types of work).
I had a master wheel builder build me a pair of wheels with Velocity rims, 14 gauge spokes, 3 cross pattern, 36 hole ultegra hubs. I have well over 6000 miles on the wheels now and had one spoke break... that's it. No loose spokes. I have been taking them in every couple 1000 miles just to have him give them a quick check and I think the first or second time he did a quick truing, but every other time he hasn't had to really do anything to them.
If you can find a real wheel builder in your area, I'd suggest taking your wheels to him/her. I'm surprised you are running a 32 spoke wheel. My bike came with 32 spoke wheels, and I basically shredded the rear wheel within a month. Going down a hill at about 34 mph and two spokes broke at the same time. The wheel was so out of true after that it was almost locked up against the frame.
If you can find a good wheel builder, he/she may be able to just re-true and retension the wheel using locktight or something similar. However, it's been my experience and I've been told by two different wheel builders that once you start breaking spokes on a regular basis or the spokes won't stay tight anymore that the wheel is pretty much hopeless. It'll just keep happening on a regular basis and drive you nuts.
Good luck and I hope you figure it out.