I have had a love/hate relationship with these wheels. The first 3000 miles were pretty trouble free, only needing to add grease to the freehub. After 3000 miles, the wheels started breaking spokes. They are bladed aero spokes, but I cannot see a brand. I have ordered spare spokes from Easton and replaced as broken. I have probably installed 8 NDS spokes, 2 front spokes and now I have one broken DS spoke. The wheel always trued right up again after the new spoke was installed.

I began to theorize that the spokes stretched over time as I never had the wheels re-tensioned and I understand loose spokes will cause the wheel to flex and then break from the beating. The NDS spokes would be loose, but the DS spokes were rock solid. I tried to re-tension myself, but did not do a great job as I tried to equalized based on sound of pinging the spoke. This rapidly took the wheel out of true and I was back to re-truing the wheel. I then tried to use equal turns on the NDS side and it re-dished the wheel to rub on the frame rail. I backed it off a bit, went for a ride and then broke the DS side.

1) Is there a point where spokes are too stretched/old/used to be tensioned properly?
2) Is this a problem with aero spokes in particular?

I was about to trash can the wheels and call them a great ride for 3000 miles, but I realized that the wheels still spin great and are in great condition except for the spokes. The wheels were about $450 originally. So I checked out buying a complete set of CS-Ray spokes and it comes to close to $150 (20 and 24 spoke wheels).

3) Would anyone advise trying this?
4) If I did try to rebuild, would it be possible to do a 2x pattern on NDS to match the DS to make the wheel stronger?

Ouija Board says "the answer is Hidden" (can't see a thing, from here)

I just ride Boring conventional wheels , my 36 hole 3x ones are in the C&V era by now, still sound and true.

If using the hub , how about getting a 451 20" rim and starting on a MiniVelo project.. ?

and actually riding something practical .. More Spokes..

I noted the writers at CyclingNews thinking it noteworthy

that one race team got out the same Hard Anodized Ambrosio,
32 spoke 3X sewup wheels , that had already done the Paris-Roubaix race before , for another year.

Team had no wheel sponsor with something to prove about their product that day..

some people on this site claim or imply
that spokes should have basically infinite life
if they are properly tensioned

i believe that spokes will eventually break
usually sometime after 3000 miles
but at some time
the spokes come to the end of their useful life
and need replacing

if the rim is straight
and the hub is smooth
then you should definitely
lace or have somebody else lace
all new spokes into those wheels

check the rim manufacturers spec for reccomended spoke tension
and get your spokes into that range after stress relieving and final truing

What's your brake track look like? Are the rims worth the trouble? Might be worth springing for a tensionmeter/building by someone with one.

By the way, you might want to try shopping around a little on the spokes. If you can stand silver ones, bikehubstore.com has them at $2.75 each which works out closer to $120.

just looked at wiggle.com
and a new ea50 wheelset
sells for one hundred ninety five bucks

ok, so a rebuild with new aero spokes doesn't sound financially viable. Could do it with db non-aero spokes for $40 to keep for backup and buy a new one?

Thank you for the insight on the fix options. The find on Wiggle is particularly interesting.

I also decided to see if Easton would offer any options or recommendations and found that they will warrant these wheels in spite of the mileage as they are just under 2 years. I am hopeful they can do a full spoke job. Out of warranty, they offer $60/wheel re-spoke with Sapim spokes, so I guess that might be my first option. $195 for a new set does sound tempting though.

I have read on several websites that the EA90's had the same problem, this is the reason i shied away from Easton and went with tried and true Mavic wheels again. But 3000 miles is alot before having a problem so i'd say rebuild and if they do it again sell them off and try something different

The spokes have not stretched.

Yes. Spokes fail due to fatigue (about 750 cycles a mile as they pass the bottom of the rim and unload) with all of the spokes in a group (front, drive side, non-drive side) seeing the same sorts of stresses and failing at the same time as each other. Once they're going like popcorn kernels you're near the end of their fatigue life.

No. It's a problem with cheap machine-built wheels. The manufacturers make more profit by doing a fast job with little hand labor, no expensive Holland Mechanics stress relieving machine, and dealing with the occasional warranty return than doing things right in the first place.

Aero spokes are good for about 1W a 30 MPH and less at lower speeds. IOW, assuming they're conventional J-bend spokes round spokes will work as well for all practical purposes except cosmetics.

Hmmm, to me a road wheel with 3000 miles is still brand new. "A lot" starts at about 25,000 miles and goes up from there.

The earliest I've ever broken a spoke was on the OEM wheels that came with an '85 Bridgestone 400. These were low cost factory wheels with no-name galvanized spokes and the first one (DS rear wheel) broke at over 8500 miles. Since then I've used DT and Wheelsmith and never broke another on several wheel sets that went well over 30,000 miles each and were retired because the rim's brake tracks were worn.

My take on the OP's EA70's agrees with Drew Eckhardt. Spokes do not stretch and the wheels were inadequately tensioned and stress relieved as delivered.

Spoke count, type of rider,and weight could also be part of the issue.

i love Rolf wheels but because of the low spoke count and me being 200+ lbs I'll never own a set, I'd pop spokes like no tomorrow.

Really? I'd have guessed the difference between a 32h 14g wheelset and the 32 (total) semi-aero spokes on my WH-R540s to be more in the order of 3-4W @ 30km/h.

That must be how strong the placebo effect is, huh? Good thing a placebo can still work even when you know it's a placebo...

Wow, you must be like a feather or something. I bet I could bend those 16 spoke wheels just looking at them.

you have been lucky

i can recall several models mass produced bikes
from several different manufacturers
where two months of regular use starts popping spokes

perhaps these wheels were not properly tensioned
or the spokes were a bad batch
as is often claimed

but none of them got anywhere close to 8000 miles

You really couldn't. I have a pair of Shimano WH-R560 wheels (similar to Kimmo's) with 16 bladed radial front spokes and 20 bladed, radial DS, 2X NDS spokes and they have been absolutely bulletproof and true over 15,000 miles of rough roads so far. However, these wheel hade relatively deep section, very rigid rims and the spokes measure 1.44 x 2.54 mm at the bladed section so they are also pretty strong.

Spokes are easy to bend, but stretching them is another matter... I suspect the WH-R540's spokes are perhaps stronger than SS, because they're painted and go rusty... or that could just have been a slack way to go black before black spokes and the necessary infrastructure were much of a thing.

You'd think 16 on the rear is pretty sketchy, even for a 65kg guy like me, but the unique rim connection and oversized nipples on the hub won't fail in a hurry, and the rims are seriously beefy. I have a bare one here with very minimal brake wear and a 1kg digital scale, which shows a hair over 553g.

That's what it takes to survive unsupported for 45° under a 85kg guy's bum, I guess... They could probably handle someone north of 90kg with a 28 on the back...

I was thinking of going all drillium on the lateral bit in the rim wells on mine; plenty of spare beef for me... my front's nearly worn through, reckon I'll try it on that one before it dies.

I'm starting to think fewer spokes with higher tension and a heavier rim is a seriously good idea for reliability.

Could be. I'm at the lightest I've been in probably 12 years and I still have 20 kilos on you, so my outlook on low spoke wheels is a bit jaded I guess because I've never been in a position where they've seemed realistic to try.