Well not exactly taco'd, but it's REALLY out of true.

On Sunday, I attached a child's trailer to the rear hub. The type that holds two kids side by side, max weight (carrying capacity) is 100 lbs. I put my (almost) four year old, 45 lbs daughter in there, and dragged her around for about 12 miles. The roads were awful, with lots of frost heaves, cracks, pot holes (you get the idea). There were some small hills where I got mashing on the pedals... And by the way I had both kids in there the day before for about 7 miles or so (total weight about 70 lbs).

Anyway, yesterday on my commute to work I notice the bike isn't as smooth as it was (noticeable wobble). At work I see that a spoke had broken. I got the bike home to change the spoke, and noticed that there are a couple of spokes broken on the same side of the rim (right next to the cog-set), and the spokes on the opposite side are really loose. I don't think it's worth fixing. I've already replaced a handful of spokes over the winter.

This is a shame because I was feeling good about being strong enough to pull the kids all around the neighborhood. I'm about 265 lbs right now, down from 285 (guess I need to keep going). Does anyone have experience with these trailers. Am I asking for the same thing to happen to a new rim? The trailer attaches to the rear axle.

This is the bike with list of components: Trek T80 The wheels have 36 spokes.

Do I buy a new rim from the LBS? Do I order one Online? What would be the most bombproof rim for this Clyde and bike?

I'm taking my old 12 speed to work tomorrow. Thanks for any help or insight.