I ride a pretty standard Trek 1000. Got it in 2003, started out real slow (first bike), but am now riding around 100-175 miles a week. I've never had any problems with the wheels, spokes, or really anything mechanic with this bike, until this past month.

I've broken 4 total spokes within 300 miles of riding. As far as I can tell, they're all different ones, and all on the rear wheel. I'm not really sure what the cause of this is, it's happened mid-ride. I don't know much about DIY mechanical stuff (although I'd like to know more) so I've taken it to shops to be fixed. I don't have a problem replacing a spoke every now and then, but this is starting to get ridiculous (ridiculously frustrating). Is this the result of just cheap wheelsets (Alexrims AT450)? Poor repairs at the shop? Or After a couple thousand miles, are wheelsets just something that need to be replaced completely?

Thanks for any help.

Sounds like cheap spokes are the primary problem here. They've reached the "beginning of the end" of their fatigue life.

If it were me, I'd say, "you know what, I ride consistently and enjoy it. I can justify spending a little money on this and really solving this problem" and I'd have a good wheelbuilder hand-build a new wheel with a Mavic CPX33 rim, and probably butted 14-gauge Wheelsmith spokes, alloy nipples and a new mid-level Shimano-brand hub. Then ride it 200 miles, take it in for a fine-tuning, ride it 1000 miles, and take it back to have the tension checked. Between the good spokes and a stiffer rim, that should carry you a long way

Rear wheel spokes are likely to break if they were undertensioned in the first place, which on a low-end bike is a real possibility. I see you're in Nashville and Chicago. Where did you buy the bike?

This is happening because as you apply torque to the hub, the spokes are getting tensioned and detensioned, and with enough wear cycles they break. If you're not breaking only one "position" of spoke (usually left side spokes of the "leading" sort, which means they join the rim counterclockwise from where they leave the hub), it's probably a general problem with the wheel, and it should be relaced. You can tackle this yourself if you're feeling ambitious; it's not all that difficult, and sheldon has good instructions. If you're going to pay a shop to do it, I would have them look at the overall condition of the wheel and give you an honest assessment of whether it would be better to put your money into new stuff.

I bought the bike at Bikes Plus, in Barrington, IL.

Getting a custom wheelset sounds terrific and fairly justifiable, but I just don't have the expendable income right now. If I were to replace the rear wheel, I really couldn't afford to spend more than about $175. I can see myself saving for a couple weeks and being able to spend more though.

I guess one of my overall concerns with this situation, is that this isn't shotty repairs at the shop. Losing one spoke and then several others so soon... is that something that I should lay fault to the shop for?

I should also add that about 30 miles prior to this spoke breaking, I had gotten an $80 tune up on the bike (hence my frustrations). I'm a poor college student.

If you haven't seen the trend yet, you're eventually going to have to rebuild the wheel (or replace it). It sounds like you've probably got a decent amount of miles on an entry level wheelset, so it may just be at the end of it's life. Things do wear out. I would bite the bullet now, as opposed to continuing to mess with it.

Otherwise, as an economy move, have the rear wheel rebuilt with straight-14ga. Wheelsmith or DT spokes and brass nipples, and see if you can wring another 1-2 years out of it like that. The straight-gauge spokes cost less than double-butted.

At that price point you just can't assume you're getting bullet-proof quality, or really any sort of quality assurance other than inspecting the brakes after the shop completes the build. I'd guess you have maybe 3000 miles on the bike. Like I said, I would relace the wheel yourself (since it sounds like you have all the tools needed) for $1 a spoke. Either borrow a tensiometer from someone or learn to do it by pitch, and just keep on rocking until your wheel is really shot. Since you presumably have a relatively true wheel right now, you can get away with replacing them one at a time, making sure you have the lacing pattern right, and then just upping the tension. See if you can bribe the shop into putting spoke prep on your spokes for you, and take it slow and you shouldn't have problems.

Your spokes are fatiguing. This is almost certainly going to continue so your best solution is to have your LBS replace all the spokes at once and be done with it.

Mavic Open Pros with Ultegra hubs at Performance Bike about $225.

https://tinyurl.com/fdfkf

Good price, but figure at least $45 to have them retensioned properly

Thanks for the advice so far. Since my front wheel has been so far reliable, would it be a terrible idea to only replace the back wheel?

yeah, front wheels don't get anywhere near as much wear and tear, you can probably leave it.

From the Performance Bike website "All of our wheels are hand-finished by our professional wheel builders."

Possibly true, but then they get shipped around the world/country. Implicit in that is that their wheels are machine-built. The OP's original wheels were probably finished to about the same standard, and we see how far that got him.

I would try to return the wheel to the shop. For a refund, not another wheel.

Then build a new back wheel yourself. Several online resources have wheelbuilding instructions, as do several books. You should be able to build a very nice wheel for under $125.

sonetimes the rim is not true to begin with and puts uneven tensoin on the spokes as the wheel goes round and round also check the spokes 14 gauge straight I recommend for you

Yes. Just get a rear wheel. Excel Sports (https://www.excelsports.com/wheel.asp) will hand build a Mavic OP for you that will be very reliable for thousands of miles.

Bob