pj7

I have yet to break a spoke, though I've only put on ~250 miles this spring, maybe I lucked into getting pick of the litter wheels?? dunno
But I am happy that I've lost a little over 15lbs thus far, and not just water weight either! I can feel my pants fitting a bit looser and am almost able to fit into a few shirts I've had sitting around for a while.
Hopefully, by the end of this month I'll be in the sub 300lb group, things are looking up and it looks like I'll start commuting as early as next week, can finally afford to get a light and some cargo packs.

Grasschopper

For us heavier guys (I am 225 down from 250) the wheel build is important and stock wheel sets on most bikes I have seen just aren't meant for us. 32 or 36 spoke wheels with a 3X lacing pattern is much better for us than these paired spoke or radial laced or low spoke count wheels. I just took the Xero XR-3 wheels (16 spoke 1X front 20 spoke 2X rear) off my commuter in favor of HAND built (this matters too) Salsa Delgado Cross rims laced to Shimano 105 hubs with 32 spokes. The ride it smoother and I am willing to bet that I am going to have to do a LOT less truing of my wheels. Look into hand built and 36 spokes and you should be all good.

2manybikes

Did you look into tandem hubs and rims with 42 spokes ?

PainTrain

Budget very tight here; thus the 7100 to start with. I just wouldn't put the price of the entire bike into new wheels. Got a good price from Harris. I'm not hard on the wheels (at least I think not), but I think I climb in too high a gear for the wheel's comfort. Hopefully the double-wall with 14g spokes will do the trick.

2manybikes

You may be fine, it will be a big improvment for sure.

CB HI

Grasschopper has it right. How the wheels are built makes a big difference. Hand built is the way to go with someone that knows what they are doing. Just rebuilding the old wheel with new spoke may do the trick.

Having just a couple of spokes with too high a tension on a new wheel can cause alot of trouble. First the 2 spokes snap which will then overstress the other spokes. Then one by one the other spokes snap until you rebuild the wheel with new spokes. had to do this with a new bike with nice wheels once. The main problem was that the wheels were originally machine built.

If your spokes broke in the middle, then straight 14g will help. If the spokes broke at the bend for the hub, then straight 14g will not make a difference over 14/15 double butted.

pj7

Hopefully my stock wheels on my 7100 will last me long enough. Like PainTrain I too am on a strict budget, after mortgage, family, bills and everything else in life I barely was able to save up enough money to get me a couple of cateye HL-200 lights for my commute, now I can finally start.
Custom built wheels are way way way down on my list of things to get.

PainTrain

They did in fact break right at that bend, though a couple broke at the nipple.

The wrenches at the LBS tell me that the stock wheel has now been out of true so many times it's essentially worthless.

FotoTomas

I weigh at 250 and have been running a pair of Specilized Rockhopper MTBs since November. One 19 inch frame belongs to the government and is my work bike. The 21 inch frame is my personal ride and commuter bike. I have been very lucky as I ride them hard, jump a lot of curbs and have yet to suffer any problems except for thorns popping tubes. Tuffy liners have stopped that problem.

My bikes are stock otherwise with the original tires and wheels. I hope they continue to provide excellent service.

I do not know the veracity of this advice but was told at the LBS that my MTBs were the best option for my weight and method of commuting. The tougher frames and tires will hold up better for me. So far they have been right on the money.

pj7

FotoTomas:
At first I considered a mountain bike but my LBS did not have one that would fit both my size and my budget, thus I went with the Trek 7100, and have no regrets. Today was my first full commute to work on it and it was a great commute.

PainTrain:
I don't know what to say man, maybe you are much tougher on your bike than I am. I have yet to have a single problem out of mine and I think we have the same year/model of bike, a 2004 Trek 7100. Ever since reading your posts about it I've been on the lookout for issues and have yet to encounter one... see, now you've gotten me all paranoid! Though I guess a little paranoia is a good thing.
I feel for you, I know if I had all the problems you've been having with the wheels I'd get pissed, scrap the whole thing, and either buy a new bike or quit all-together.

Brian Ratliff

Broken spokes tend to lead to more broken spokes if the spoke is simply replaced and re-tensioned. I have found that the only reliable way to cure broken spokes is to rebuild the wheel with double butted spokes and make sure the tension on all the spokes is equal and properly tight. I haven't had a problem with any wheel once I had done this.

DogBoy

Either I've been incredibly lucky or I don't ride as rough as you guys. I'm not quite as heavey as you, but at 220 and another 40 lbs of stuff I'm no lightweight. I've got a set of mavic 36 spoke rims/campy mirage hubs on a light touring bike with 700-25 (120 psi) tires and a set of alex DH-19 32 spoke double walled rims with alivio hubs on a hybrid with 700-38 85 psi tires and neither of them has given me a problem (where's the wood to knock on?).

As far as the inflation/tires thing. the less contact your wheel makes with the ground the less resistance there is to rolling, so the faster you can go for a given effort. The flip-side to this is that your ride is more harsh, and you get to feel every jolt. This is minimized if you have supsension, but still.

Personally I have come to like the fatter tires on my commuter (still prefer 700-23 120 psi for road-cycling). The ride is much more comfortable on the crappy pot-holed roads I ride on to commute (much worse than most of the country roads I ride my roadbike on). My speed penalty for the fatter-tires, more upright position, heavier bike and 40 lbs of crap is about 2-3 mph. This just isn't enough to worry about over a 5-10 mile commute (~5-10 minutes different vs the roadbike...13 vs 16 mph for a nice easy spin). The difference between the hybrid & light touring bike is only 1 mph (unless its really windy).

My suggestion is that you keep the fatter tires on your bike, and when they need to go (probably 1000-2000 miles unless they are cut) you replace them with similar width tires that have very little tread and some sort of kevlar liner. My advice on wheels is to go with what you have unless they frequently break. If you keep popping spokes ask the LBS if rebuilding your current wheel would help (probably $20-$30) or if you need to spring for a new one. Then worry about what rim/hub to get.

PainTrain

D'oh! Now I've gone 'n done it!

My office sits in a river valley and I have to climb to the top on the way home every day. That's why I'm convinced it's the climbing that's hurting the wheel. That and the fact that the last one went as I stood up to take a hill, *poing* I heard it let go. That one was on the nipple.

I try to focus on cadence and gear down as needed, but I'm always pushing for better time and so stay in as big a gear as I can turn at 90 or so.

Also, I have around 2000 miles on the thing. Really, I'm putting a hard commute on a bike that was made to fit a price-point. I will be very glad to get the new wheelset on; but I'm sure it will be a while before I stop looking down to see if I'm wobbling again.

pj7

I took my bile in to the LBS yesterday to get a rack/panier installed on it and the guy doing the wrench work was sort of astonished that I hadn't had any problems out of my wheels. At first I thought he was just trying to see me something, but after our discussion I was convinced that he was legitimately concerned.
He said that my wheels were actually pretty good for your average rider, but with my weight I would have done better to pick a bike with better ones, but not to go out and purchase anything but rather to wait until my wheels starting giving out and that he'd rebuild them for the price of some better spokes and no labor.
After all was said and done, they had installed my rack/panier, trued my wheels for free, and threw in a couple of reflective leg bands for free... best shopping experience ever.

Ohio Trekker

pj7

Let me tell you a little story, I was out of biking for a while and gained a LOT of weight. I bought my 7700 in 2003 at 300 pounds. After a year of riding and 2500ish miles, 50 pounds later. I had NO issues at all with any components on the bike including the wheels. And that bike was through HELL & BACK with me, including some trails with mighty large gravel that I NEVER should have done, but I was in an adventurous spirt. I was alittle concerned about the spokes holding up, but I haven't even had to have them adjusted let alone pop a spoke or anything else that people eluded would happen. Came in late on the post so I don't know how much you weight, but I would advise you not to worry about the wheels, and do as you have been, ride it till something happens and you have to repair/replace it. From your most recent post it sounds like you have an AWESOME/supportive FRIEND in your LBS trust him, and don't totally disregard what others advise you, but take all accounts into consideration.

On my 3rd bike since 2003, not including my 520 from the late 80's which I ride on occassion so it doesn't get too jealous, and still have the 7700, may trade it in for a MTB I can mount a rack on this year to do some back country touring though! ;-( Wife won't let me put another bike in the garage or I would keep it!

pj7

A good handful of guys in that shop. There are 3 bike shops in my general vacinity and this is the smaller of the three. I had been to the first two, that is where I got my bike and a few other things and was reluctant to go to this one since it was smaller and, to be honest, had less flashy signs which led me to believe that it was sub-par as compared to the other two I had visited.
I was riding by it one day about a month ago and stopped in just to check it out. Just like the outside hinted to, it was small and their variety was not as abundant as the other two shops. I yacked with the fella a little bit about commuting and the traffic and the kick-ass Olds 442 that just raced by on Gratiot and wot-not. And to be a good sport I picked up some chain lube and a few other small items. Before I paid for the items the guy was like "you know you can get bike lubs and stuff prett cheap online". My reply was "yeah, maybe, but I earn my money in here and I'll spend it here, not too many small businesses left these days". Now every time I go back the fella treats me with respect and curt, unlike the other places that made me feel like I really wasn't more than someone with money to spend. Needless to say, I'll be spending more of my money in that shop as the years go by. I don't mind paying 10%-20% markup to get something locally, support local businesses, and actually get to look someone in the eye when I spend my hard earned cash.

PainTrain

Update: Rear axle finally has broken in two. I now have a set of double-wall road wheels and new cassette being installed. Truly, this 7100 was not designed for the job I make it do. Oh well.

pj7

We just won't let this thread die eh?
My rear wheel finally took a crap on me, popped some spokes and warped the rim pretty good, that was a few weeks ago. Got a loaner wheel from one of the LBS dudes and I egged it within two commutes. Now they are building me a Velovity Dyad 36 spoker, can't wait to see how that bad boy holds up.
Everything else on my 7100 has been awesome! Just that damned rear wheel.

Marylandnewbie

Like many of you I am a heavier biker and have killed off the rear wheels of several cheap x-mart bikes. I bought a Fuji Supreme in February and since then have put about 350 mi. on it. When I bought it the LBS owner commented that her tandem had the same rear wheel and they rode with about 340 lbs on it. Its got the stock 36 spoke wheels.

I just broke my first spoke on the rear wheel last week. I'm hoping that it will not be the first of a string of breaks. I do not ride that hard (no curb jumping, mostly paved trails and roads, etc.) Probably the biggest strain on the wheels in the first mile of the bike path I use which is unpaved and full of loose stone and gravel and gulleys. Heavy rains and no maintenance have left that section of trail rutted and in bad shape. My guess is that bad trail + heavy biker = premature spoke death.

Hopefully as I lose weight things will get easier on the wheels. My LBS fixed it for me for $16 so I'm happy and will be back to my normal long ride next week.

2manybikes

see above ......

pj7

Well, for alot of us spending $200 or more on a single 40+ spoke wheel is totally out of the question, especially considering we had to scrape for months just to afford the $400.00 bicycle.
Guess I'm lucky enough to have a LBS with guys who know what a pinch I'm in when it comes to money and are happy to help out with whatever they can.

hotwheels

I was 330lbs at 6'2 now I'm 240-250. I bent a couple of rims on a hybrid bike and then bought a GT Palomar mtn. bike. The bike came with 36 spoked rims and rides perfect for my size! No problems with the rear rim. If your heavy, I suggest getting a nice mountain bike with slicks (contitoptourer)and ride as rough as you want. I did it and doing it with no problems.

pj7

In retrospect I would have chosen a 26" MTB with 36 spokes, but unfortunately the past is the past and I am, for lack of better terminology, stuck with my current bike.
Maybe in the coming months I can save up enough to "upgrade" to something better, that is if I feel the need to. But for now I'll be happy if I can get a full week of commuting in without have issues.

hotwheels

Hope everyhting works out for you. Enjoy the commute.