I bought a Specialized Crosstrail in April and have put about 900 miles on it. Three weeks ago, I broke a spoke. I broke a second one today. Both spokes were on the rear wheel and neither ride had anything approaching a major bump. Has anyone else had problems with Specialized spokes?

Yep, after 3 repairs in close succession, my LBS built me a new 36 spoke wheel - no more problems. Used an Alex Adventurer rim, and a Deore hub, with double butted spokes.

All waranted, and I'm a happy camper. Never a problem, since.

There have been many reports of Crosstrail rear spoke failure.

Not the same bike, but the rear wheel on my Specialized Hardrock Sport has been nothing but problems. Bought it in July of '09 and I've had two broken spokes repaired, and it's currently out of true once again.

I've only taken it out on singletrack twice. The rest of the time has been on asphalt.

Thanks for the feedback. Specialized is shipping two new wheels to my LBS. They're not an upgrade, but so we'll see if that makes any difference. At the very least, I suppose it buys me another 800 miles (before these start to break at the same point as the original wheels).

I've got a Specialized Crosstrail too (2008). How and when have these spoke problems happened? Do I need to be aware for when I am riding for them to just break out of nowhere for no particular reason?

Thanks for your help.

Red Rock

That's exactly what happened to me - luckily, I was near the shop when it happend - all three times.

The problem is unlikely to be the spokes - it's probably the assembly of the wheel, especially the balance of tension in the spokes. It might be worth finding out how much a local wheel builder will charge to tweak them.

Give the spokes the old pluck test. You should be able to hear a similar tone from each spoke on the same side of the wheel. It's a basic, but very good place to start. I have a 2010 Crosstrail and so far I have not had a problem. I also just two weeks ago, picked up a Diamondback Insight 2 from BikeNashbar. It was shipped un-assembled. The first thing I noticed was the wheels were out of true. So I started with the pluck test. Just about each spoke that needed to be touched to true the wheel, showed up via the pluck. There are Youtube videos showing this approach if you're unfamiliar.

Thanks for the tips. I've since broken a third spoke and Specialized has replaced both wheels with double-rimmed upgrades at no charge. I've had no issues after 150 miles, but the original wheels lasted about 750 miles before they started to go.

I purchased a 2011 Specialized Crosstrail about two months ago (March 2011) The front disc breaks squeak a little (no big deal ) ,Shifting makes a lot of noise (no big deal) -But the other day after using the bike for several months a spoke broke off the back wheel . The spoke broke out of the hub not the rim .

While I was waiting in line to give the wheel back another person came in with two broken spokes on a rear wheel of a Specialized bike .

You wonder if they have call backs on these? I've had an Iron Horse since 1997 and that bike is in better shape than my 2011 Specialized

6 pokes replaced in 1400 miles. I'm asking he the shop to provide a new tire or a least a set of spokes.

Spokes just started to go on my Crosstrail as well. I've replaced two already on the rear wheel.

Last year 2011 while the bike was still under warranty I had a third spoke break within three months of owning it. The bike shop in East Providence replaced all the spokes with stainless steel spokes .Haven't had a problem since then. The spokes were breaking off right at the hub near the chain.

Also if you notice there are less spokes on the newer Crosstrail bikes.

The old Schwinn place on Rt 6?

Like many of you I broke about 4 spokes on my 2011 Crosstrail but mine were within a month or two...maybe 250-300 miles. LBS did not cover any of the repairs and said it was normal to break a spoke here and there as long as it wasn't more than 3. After the 4th spoke I ended up buying a Weinmann ZAC 19 36-spoke wheel and have not broken a single spoke or had to re-true the rim in over 1500 miles. This seems to paint a bad picture of the LBS, but they did replace the defective pedals that cracked in the first 100 miles. I weigh 205lbs and the LBS told me to always pump to max pressure (85psi) and I always do before every ride. I broke my first spoke in the first week of riding, that was the one that frustrated me when they said it was $15 or so.

Specialized contracts out the Bikes , they make neither the spokes or the Bike,
they have a Contract Builder do that.

Giant and Merida are just 2 of the several manufacturers building multiple Importer's Brands.

Well that's kind of interesting. I know Giant and really like their bikes and Merida is made right here in Germany. Been trying to figure out of they were a good name brand or not. I wouldn't let a few bad spokes on a cheap bike ruin their rep.

Yep, ( not new news for some ) Giant has the largest bike factory in China, they also make bikes for Trek also ... Funny/sad that, everyone ( brand snobs ) loves their Specalized and Treks... and Giant has a hard time selling their own branded bikes .

Anyway... back to the spokes, lots of options to "fix" your problem. Usually "pricepoint" bikes have single wall rims with low spoke counts... so, you can upgrade the rim ( rim swap takes 15min ) to a double wall one ... repl all the spokes
( longer than 30 min ) to quality ones ( dt comes to mind )... if all else fails J&b has a wheel for 75$ that usees 12ga spokes. Ask your LBS which wil be the best option for you. ( ex: if you have a single wall rim, it might not be worth the 32$ in spokes to upgrade the spokes, but rather do a doublewall rim. )

Specialized paid for 2 new wheels. Good upgrade, but didn't lasted very long. I noticed some cracks near the nipples. All around the rear rim. Since then I invested in a very nice wheel set. Its one of very few things you shouldn't try to save on.