Got something i can't figure out here and apparently, neither can my local shop. I have a set of wheels with aero spokes and keep breaking spokes on the rear wheel. Whats odd is that it is not breaking drive side, but non-drive side. Any suggestions would be helpful and appreciated.

More detail. Straight pull or elbow spokes? Breaking at the nipple or the hub end, nipple head breaking off? Also, what brand? I've seen Zipp wheels built with too short spokes from the factory. The alloy nipple heads shear off as a result.

Elbow spokes and they are breaking at the hub. The wheels are Vuelta Corsa Lites. This is my second set of Vueltas. The first set, a heavier, less expensive set, have never given me any problems. I only weigh 175 lbs.

If the LBS is replacing only the broken spokes and that wheel has a low count number of spokes, that would explain the problem. In low count spokes wheelsets once one spoke goes dead the other ones will follow.

I would just change all the spokes for something else like sapim straight gauge spokes and crank them a lot. Spokes can snap for lack of tension too.

+1. This wheel needs a rebuild. I'd try the warranty route first though. No experience with complete Vuelta wheels. I've built wheels with Vuelta rims. Seem to be quite good quality for the price point.

First of all, it's normal for breakage to occur on the non drive side. (when it happens). IME the most likely spoke to break is the inside (head to outside) left side, followed by the outside left side.

There are lots of theories as to why this is true, and disagreement among experts, but the fact remains that it's true. Like the others, I'd replace the spokes on the left, but counter-intuitively, I'd use the lightest spoke with a 14g elbow. Also have the shop open up the elbow a bit when they thread the spokes, so it's cold set angle is closer to what angle the spoke actually sits at. The other thing to consider, is if there's enough room for a thin washer under the head to bring the elbow as close to the flange as possible.

Non drive side rear spokes are the most common to break because they have the lowest tension. Lower tension causes excess flexure and the spokes break at their weakest point, the "J" bend at the hub flange. The cure is to raise the tension on both sides of the wheel.

1. Rebuild
2. Make sure tension starts out high to begin with. (95-100 kgf 32/36h front and 107-115 kgf rear drive 32/36h for typical modern day alloy rims are ballpark figures unless manu notes otherwise...)
3. Make sure stress relief is carried out during and at end of wheel build. (Very hard squeezes of parallel spokes on each side for two rotations each time.)

=8-)

Thanks guys..guess i will find a shop that can carry this out correctly, as neither of the shops in my area use tension meters when building wheels. Again, thanks

One of the ways that you lower the price a bike, or pre built manufactured wheel set,
sells for , is to seek the low bid from the spoke supplier..

perhaps the wire the spoke was formed of was not pure and un contaminated by

other grit in the wire metal, coming off the wire spool.being fed into the spoke making machine.

Whether a builder does or does not use a tension meter isn't a good way to gauge his skill. Many of the most skilled and experienced builders live without tension meters, because they started before these were common, and still have the calibrated feel to continue without.

Consider an analogy to pilots. Who would you rather have in the cockpit? An old hand that flew before planes were as instrumented as much as they are today, and can still fly "by the seat of his pants", or someone who started flying after planes became as smart as today's planes. If all goes right, it won't make a difference, but if something goes wrong, experience tells, and there's no substitute for it.

I don't know the players, or their skills, so a change may be indicated, but look for skill, and not ownership of tools.

The suppliers might reduce material cost in several ways:

1. Use 204 Stainless Steel (modified 201) instead of 304 Stainless Steel. This means a slight reduction in Chromium and Nickel, and a slight increase in copper to control work hardening. However, this suggest a slight increase in susceptibility to rust.

https://www.cartech.com/techarticles.aspx?id=1600

(I'm assuming 304 was in use in the first place...)

2. Use 7.0mm elbows instead of 6.2mm elbows - 7.0mm is easier, faster, and results in less wear and tear and mishaps.

3. Skip spoke head marking.

4. Larger production run.

5. Run threading dies for larger period and accept imperfect threads for machine built wheels.

Here's something interesting I just checked using a 300g scale with a resolution of .001g:

HTI 14g Stainless Steel Spoke (Hsing Ta) @293.5mm = 7.25g
CNspoke Mac 14g Stainless Steel Spoke @293.5mm = 7.47g
Phil Wood (Sapim) 14g Stainless Steel Spoke @293.5mm = 7.55g

Me suspects HTI's (Hsing Ta) are made using a much lower grade of stainless steel than CN and Phil Wood (Sapim).

HTI's are the lighter weight el-cheapo stainless steel spokes resold by WheelMaster with the lobed star spoke head marking.

=8-)

I think you should combine those weight measurements with actual micrometer readings of the spoke dia. A "few" .001"s difference in dia. could account for the weight difference.

Updated list:

HTI 14g Stainless Steel Spoke (Hsing Ta) @293.5mm = 7.25g
CNspoke Std. 14g Stainless Steel Spoke @293.5mm = 7.34g <<< el-cheapo CN spoke
CNspoke Mac 14g Stainless Steel Spoke @293.5mm = 7.47g
DT Swiss 14g Stainless Steel Spoke @293.5mm = 7.53g
Phil Wood (Sapim) 14g Stainless Steel Spoke @293.5mm = 7.55g

=8-)