Hello, I have a new Trek 7.1 FX, that I've been riding about 15 miles a day, 5 days a week for the past two months. During that time I have broken 2 spokes on the rear wheel, and have had to take it in for repair. The shop where I bought the bike repaired the broken spoke for free the second time. The first time I was no where near that shop, so I took it into another near by shop and paid to have it repaired.

I am a big guy. Over 6 feet, and about 275 lbs, so I am sure that my size is a real strain on the wheels. The city that I live in has very rough roads as well so I am sure that doesn't help. I have kind of been thinking about buying a beefier set of wheels for my bike. Can anyone here recommend a good wheel set that will work on the Trek 7.1 FX?

I have looked around online a bit, but the problem is that I am not really sure what I am looking for. The wheel size is 700c X 35, but I think the rear wheel is a free wheel or something rather than a cassette. These terms are outside of the scope of my understanding at this point, and I am hoping to be educated.

Thanks.

How many spokes are in the wheel that has been giving you problems? Either your wheel has too few spokes or it was built badly. If it was built badly, you don't need a heavier, stronger wheel. The hands that build the wheel affect how durable it is just as the materials used do.

Your wheel should have at least 32 spokes. If you get a replacement wheel, one with 36 spokes is good insurance, and the weight penalty is negligible.

If you need a new wheel, find out for sure whether it has a freewheel or a cassette. If it uses a 7-speed freewheel, it is very likely you can replace it with a wheel with a cassette. It will cost more, but it will be a stronger wheel.

You also need to measure the width of the axle. You need the measurement called over-locknut-distance or OLD. It's awkward to measure: you want the distance between the two places in the frame where the axle makes contact. It is probably 130 mm. Other possible values are 126 mm and 135 mm. You definitely want a hub with the same OLD measurement.

Thank you for the pointers. The information that you've given me makes allot of sense. The wheel does have 32 spokes. I've put quite a few miles on it now since I last had a spoke replaced, and so far it seems to be holding up. After the first time that I had a broken spoke replaced on it, the same wheel broke a spoke again after no more than 5 or so miles of riding.

Judging from what you've said, maybe it was just a crappy repair job. I took it to a different shop this most recent time, and I'm really hoping it will just hold up. If not, I will be following your advice and looking at a 36 spoke wheel with a cassette. I just hope I don't end up spending more on replacing the wheel set than what the whole bike cost to begin with, which was just shy of $500.

Thanks again for the reply. If I do end up replacing the wheel set, or just the rear wheel alone, I will come back to your response and use it as a reference.

Your spokes are breaking from fatigue. Fatigue occurs when something is stresses below its breaking point repeatedly which lowers its breaking point. Your wheel was probably not stress-relieved or fully tensioned when new. The shop that replaced your spoke can't do a better job than they did because your spokes were and are already fatigued. Your next wheel needs to be stress-relieved and fully tensioned. It might last you decades. A good wheel builder knows how to stress-relieve and fully tension.

And whatever the wheel costs, it's what you need. Don't compare repair costs with original cost. It's meaningless. It costs more than you expected but you'll be paying what you should have paid in the first place. You need a better than off-the-shelf wheel.

Sun Rhyno Lite 40 spoke 29er Mountain Bike Commuter Wheelset [74247] - $139.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike


You need a 135mm rear hub due to your bike's dropout spacing(where the hub fits.

Your current wheels are extremely weak as that is where Trek cut the most corners when spec'ing the bike to meet a price point. I have worked on a couple dozen of those Trek wheels...AT750 is the rim, correct? They are a freewheel instead of freehub and cassette. Freewheels are inherently weaker than freehub/cassette as how they are designed places more strain on the hub. Think of the two as bridges and the freewheel setup is a longer bridge, but there arent more support beams. It breaks easier than the cassette setup and your size places significantly more strain than someone who is 120# or even 170#.
Also, the spokes are entry level and often times not tensioned well. These issues also lead to more wheel issues.


Try to get 36 spokes because with everything else being equal, more spokes = less strain on each spoke. If one does happen to somehow break, the wheel will be out of true less when compared to a wheel with 20 spokes or something like that.


Other options besides the one above could be
Sun Rhyno Lite Silver 29er Wheelset 6 Bolt Disc & V Brake 36h [740775] - $119.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike
Sun Ringlé Rhyno Lite / Shimano Deore 525 Mountain Wheelset great hubs. there is a constant 20% discount for nashbar too.


I have some velomine wheels as they cost less built than I could have spent to build the same wheels. Great service and fast shipping.



If you get anything from Nashbar or Velomine, take them to a shop after a few rides and ask them to make sure the spoke tension is correct. Its just the reality of budget wheelsets which are machine built- its a good idea to check tension after some riding.



Of course you could spend $250, 400, or more. I listed wheelsets for $160ish and less based on the bike you have. These will all be 10x better than the wheels you currently have and should be significantly more reliable.

Good advice...

Just an aside to the general audience, I really hate how this is so common with cheap bikes. Even a machine can be made to do better, there are a ton of good machine tensioned wheels now, but these $400-class bikes just all have rear wheels that turn to crap unless they're gone over.

Thank you for the very helpful reply. Yes, you are correct, the wheels that I have currently on the bike are the AT750. Thank you for the recommendations. I really like that first set that you recommended. They look like they would match my bike very well, and I like that they have 40 spokes. They seem to be really tough wheels. Exactly what I'm looking for. Please forgive my ignorance on the subject, but I just have one question in regard to the wheel set. You mentioned that my stock wheels are a freewheel instead of a free hub and cassette. If I purchase the first set of wheels that you recommended, will those work with my current freewheel parts? Or would I need to purchase a 7 speed cassette? I'm ok with purchasing the cassette if need be, I am just not sure how to precede. Thanks.

You would need a 7 speed cassette.

Your current 7 speed freewheel is either a 14-32 or 14-34. That represents the smallest cog(14) and the largest cog(either 32 or 34). There are then 5 cogs between the smallest and largest making 7 total.

Cassettes(and freewheels) come in a lot of different tooth combinations.

https://www.amazon.com/Shimano-HG50-...6I2?th=1&psc=1 this is 13-34, so really close to your current freewheel and $23.

https://www.amazon.com/Shimano-CS-HG...1TP86MPTBF131A This is only $13.50, but the finish isnt as nice and its 12-31 gearing.


If you never use the smallest front chainring with the largest rear cog, then perhaps get a 'tighter' cassette. The first link which is Shimano HG50, has other options like 13-30 or 13-26. Basically, it takes away the large cogs on the rear that are used for a lot of hill climbing with the smallest front chainring. Instead, it provides closer shifts so that when you shift, the difference between each cog isnt so large.
Hope that explanation makes sense.

If you are hesitant on how you use the gearing, just get the 13-34 cassette as itll be effectively the same as what you have now.



1 more thing. I didnt realize the wheelset I linked is 8sp and higher compatible. That isnt a problem for you though as you just need a spacer for the freehub. its really just a piece of metal that takes us space. Any bike shop will have one or you could order one online. I would bet that Velomine could provide one when they ship the wheelset.

You're getting good advice, here's another 36-spoke wheelset to consider. Again, you would need a 7-speed cassette, and look to make sure that it comes with the spacer required to put it on a standard 8-9-10-speed freehub. 8-9-10-speed cassettes are all the same width (cogs are more tightly spaced), but 7-sp is not as thick and needs a spacer to take up the slack.

Ah, I was going to link the HD wheelset, but its only 130 spacing in back and the Trek FX takes 135.

Agreed. During the spring and summer, I trained with and was a mentor for a RAGBRAI team of at risk youth. New FX 7.1 bikes donated and the kids get to keep them if they complete RAGBRAI. About 35 kids started and 25 finished the season.
Anyways, those bikes have the bones to be good, but are lacking in areas just because of the need to hit a price point. Thing is, it doesnt seem like it should cost a whole lot more for better stock components. The stock 7sp freewheel hubs cost $18ish on Amazon. A new 9sp Deore rear hub costs $22.

I am convinced that some of the issue with entry bikes is there are components on the bike which just dont make sense anymore, but the bike is spec'd with them in order to differentiate the bike from higher level offerings of the model.
For the FX, the higher level models then have more speeds, etc. As a result, the 7.1 gets a low end freewheel since a quality 7 speed freehub in 135mm spacing basically doesnt exist. Its only $4 more retail to buy a quality Deore 9sp hub, so I cant imagine how similar in price the components are at the cost level.

Its as if Trek and others actively work to spec some of their bikes with lower end components so there are necessary gaps between model levels to justify pricing.

As for the FX, we replaced a ton of spokes, and most of these bikes were ridden by kids who weigh 150# or less. The next biggest issue after actual snapped spokes, was out of true wheels because of poor tension. Wheels wobblin all the time, which drove everyone nuts since those Vbrakes need to be so close to the rim to work well.

I believe this is how it works with Trek and Giant and probably Specialized, too. First, you have to fill shops with as many models in as many sizes as possible. You want product differentiation, even where it doesn't help the consumer. So the entry model comes with a 7-speed freewheel, and the next one up comes with an 8-speed cassette. The extra one cog isn't a deal maker or breaker but it's really much nicer to have a cassette hub, so I consider the price difference justified. And where does that extra money go? Into profits.

that's a really cool charity idea. would it be possible to get a shop to donate labor to properly tension the wheels of the donated bikes? Or would that even not help?

Well first, ill plug the group. Its a really fantastic program/team and the multi-year riders have grown a ton.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/sto...hood/87812896/ <---this is a writeup on one of the kids.
Helping Youth Set and Obtain Goals
The bikes are donated from a local shop who also supplies the team with a bunch of tubes, gloves, helmets, chain oil, etc. They also let each kid who is coming back to bring their bike in for a free tuneup where components will be both adjusted and changed(if needed).
And on RAGBRAI, the mobile shop will fix anything for the kids or mentors.

The shop assembles the bikes before the season starts in late Feb/early March, but they dont hand tension the wheels. They do so much for the group as it is.
I am actually going to suggest a few of us work on the wheels before the kids start riding next season to help reduce the number of spoke breaks and out of true wheels. The kids all put on between 1100 and 1600 miles during training and RAGBRAI, so any preventative maintenance will be good.

Thank you all you for all of the wonderful tips. I really feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of what I need to look for now. I had absolutely no idea before posting, really I didn't.

Knowing what I know now, I would have probably bought something else. I think that the Trek 7.1 fx is generally a quality bike for the price, but based off of the fact that the rear wheel is 135mm spacing, and it also has a freewheel setup vs a freehub and cassette setup, I think I would have continued to shop around. Unfortunately I was oblivious to all of this at the time of purchasing my bike. I guess I should have researched a bit before hand :/ The biggest thing that irks me about the 135mm spaced rear wheel is that it seems to be that 95% of the aftermarket rear wheels for sale are 130mm spaced. And that kinda sucks. I really don't get why Trek went out of their way to use non-standard size parts.

Oh well, as least I get to go shopping for some upgrades and try to get the bike to a state in which I am completely happy with it. Silver lining. Thanks again to all of you for giving me so much knowledge!

135 rear spacing is pretty much industry standard for a hybrid bike. Also the same as required by current 29'er mountain bikes, though the rims tend to run wider than what is typically used for hybrids. The 7.2 version of your bike would have gotten you away from the freewheel, but you still would have only had 32 spoke wheels, which are also fairly standard for most of the hybrid bikes.

Unless you're having issues with the spokes/truing on the front wheel, might be able to go to your lbs and have them give you a quote for building up, or ordering in a 36 or 40 hole hub for the 135 axle width wheel that you need. I know the shop I frequent seems to be able to compete with the online prices, or better than I've found shopping around for many items, especially wheelsets.

What you are probably finding is that there are very few 135mm spaced wheelsets which are made for rim brakes.
135mm spaced wheelsets that are 700c sized are incredibly common...they are called 29er wheels.

The following is a guideline and not a rule(there are very few rules in bike spec'ing)- 130mm hub spacing is road and 135mm hub spacing is mountain.
Thing is, most mountain bikes(and many hybrids which use mountain components) are spec'd with disc brakes now. Many rims on disc wheels arent made to also handle rim brakes.

A couple of the options I linked earlier are disc or rim brake compatible. On the option from Nashbar, you can see the hub is technically a disc hub(there is a 6 pointed star-like shape on the left side of the hub) but it would work perfectly if paired with a rim brake rim.

The reality is that 135mm wheelsets which are prebuilt and made for rim brakes are a dying breed. If the links above arent quite what you want...
You could have some built using https://www.universalcycles.com/shop...s.php?id=48612 but that could require a good bit of research on each part of the wheel.
You could also have a local shop build some wheels as all you need is mountain hubs, spokes, and a rim that can handle Vbrakes.

On a Trek DS, I've got the following:

Velocity Dyad 700c rims
Shimano Deore XT 36H hubs (135mm rear hub spacing, 100mm front hub spacing)
DT Swiss 2mm straight-gauge spokes
Continental Tour Ride tires, in 47-622 (28x1.75)

Very highly recommended. Stout and great ride quality. Noise-free, despite a commute that's got numerous potholes and with several minor to moderate strikes already. The 47-622 sizing of the tire makes it difficult to fit full-length fenders, so 40mm sizing would be smarter. Am north of 200# myself, and it works great. But I should think it would handle a 300# rider without any problems, unless you're tearing it up on rougher terrain more suited to a proper MTB.

EDIT -- BTW, this wheelset was found, brand new, from a brick-and-mortar shop that sells some of its overstock and custom-but-not-sold items on eBay. Price was sub-$200, for the wheelset, plus $25 for shipping. A pretty good deal, all things considered. Having this done up, new, at a local shop would have been significantly pricier, for the same setup (based on their quote). Deals are out there, if you know what you'd prefer and hunt around a bit.

I really like that first wheel set that you recommended. These ones...

Sun Rhyno Lite 40 spoke 29er Mountain Bike Commuter Wheelset [74247] - $139.00 Velomine.com : Worldwide Bicycle Shop, fixed gear track bike wheelsets campagnolo super record vintage bike

I guess I'm still a little bit unclear on a couple details though. Maybe you can help me out. So if I purchase that wheel set, this cassette...

https://www.amazon.com/Shimano-HG50-...6I2?th=1&psc=1

Is there anything else that I need? I'm not sure what kind of valve holes these wheels have on them. Are the presta valves? If so I would need to order a set of tubes to go along with the new wheels. Would the tube and tire size be the same as my old (current) wheels? They are 700c X 35. And lastly, would I need to order a new chain, or would my current chain be fine? It seems that I basically need to have my hand held through out the process of upgrading my wheel set, but I would really love to be able to purchase everything that I need in one shot and have it all be the correct and proper stuff.

So just to sum it all up. To the best of my current knowledge this is what I need. The 40 spoke wheels that are linked above, the 7 spd cassette also linked above, a 4.5mm spacer to make the cassette align properly. And possibly new tubes with presta valves, maybe new tires, and possibly a new chain?

Am I missing anything?

Again, thank you so much for helping me out with this. I really do appreciate it. I have asked the guys at my LBS about this but they either aren't as knowledgeable on the subject as you are, or they just aren't really interested in helping me out with it. I think it's the former.

One last question... I believe that these wheels are a little heavier than my current wheels. Do you think that will have any impact on the way my bike rides?

Thank You!

Pretty much nailed it all.

You need the wheelset, spacer, presta tubes, and cassete.
You dont need a new chain. But, its often recommended to replace the chain when you replace the cassette. Not required, but often done. A 7sp kmc brand chain is probably $8 online, so if the current chain is well used, it wouldnt hurt and is a small cost. If the current chain is relatively new or lightly used, leaving it is fine.

You dont need new tires. Get new tires if you want, but your current tires will fit fine.
Get 3 tubes at least so you have an extra when needed.

I would bet that the new wheelset is heavier as you suggest. Its a 40spoke wheelset using a rim that is not a lightweight rim.
As for how itll ride...i wouldnbet itllnride with less flex. The stock rims are flexible. I am 6'5 230# and can torque those stock rear wheels very easily. This lateral twisting is in part why the wheelset isnt great.
The velomine wheelset is 40 spokes and a robust rim. Based only on those 2 things, i would think it will flex less.

I find that tires change the feel of a ride more than rims. My experience is admittedly limited, but ive ridden the same tires on a few different wheelsets and the ride wasn't really different between wheels.
Change the tire from a cheap thick heavy tire to a light supple folding tire and i notice a big difference in how the bike feels and rides.

The Sun Rhyno wheel from velomine is 135mm wide. [MENTION=385973]mstateglfr[/MENTION] says that's the width you need. I'm sure he's right, but check anyway. Measure the space between the dropouts before you buy the wheel. It might be off by as much as 3mm, and that's OK. The dropouts are the places where your wheel axle clamps into the frame. Measure between the inside surfaces. Don't have a bike shop do this if you're not buying from them; that's rude. If you can't do it without their help, have them do it, and buy the wheel from them. Their help is worth the extra price you pay for the wheel.

I don't know... I haven't seen a single post (I may have missed it) inquire of the o.p. as to how they approach being an active suspension component of a rigid construction bicycle. 6' and 275lbs. is big, but not ungodly huge. The OEM wheels should be able to handle it. It will take a lot of money to buy significantly better third party wheels, which then puts the whole purchase into a rather different price class, with none of the usual fringe benefits (lighter, better shifters, brakes, etc.). I wouldn't do it. I would instead learn to become a scrupulous reader of the road, and not allow any but the most unavoidable hits to reach the rear wheel. FWIW.

As said, I spent many hours working on the exact wheels the OP has. They are inconsistent from bike to bike, they are entry level quality at best, and any of the offerings I posted would be 10x better in terms of durability and reliability.
The OEM wheels are an inherently weak freewheel design. The rear hub is weak, spoke tension is both inconsistent and easily negatively altered, and its a freewheel.

The stock wheelset could be taken in and worked on by a shop. It would be probably $50 per wheel or more since it would basically be broken down and tensioned and trued all over. That would still result in a wheel that has an inherently weaker hub than a cassette and freehub design.
I have owned many and still own 2 bikes with freewheels. I am fully aware they are absolutely serviceable, as they are all on bikes which are 25-35 years old. But I also have worked on the wheels, know the wheels arent nearly as strong as my newer tech wheels, and accept all this.
The OP doesnt want that, and $120-200 will get an entry wheelset which should be much more reliable than whats stock.

I am not sure why you say the OEM wheels should be fine when 1- they clearly arent for the OP as they are popping spokes, and 2- I have worked on them and know firsthand the frustration that comes with the wheels.
Thing is- you could probably find plenty of people with those wheels and no issue. That just shows they are inconsistently built, not that the wheelsets are well built.

Based off of my own experience and the fact that a quick google search containing the words 'Trek 7.1 FX rear wheel' brings up at least three different forum posts from individuals who have had the same or similar problem as mine. That is broken spokes. I am not really the type of person who wants to dump money into utilitarian things unless I have to. I enjoy riding my bike, but for me its not as much of a hobby as it is more so just a cheap and efficient way for me to get around. A utility. I hope that doesn't offend anyone. I just want my utility items to work reliably, and after breaking a spoke twice within a week, and being forced to walk several miles I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth in regard to the wheels on my bike, particularly the rear. IMO it is something that needs to be remedied ASAP and that remedy calls for replacing the weak link, i.e., the wheel set.