oleg8888

This is my first non-cheap bike and I love it.
Got it about 6 month ago and haven't put too many miles on it.
I ride flat only with minor road imperfections.
Went thru 3 spokes already. The last one broke within a mile after replacing the second spoke.
My LBS where I bought the bike (which providing me with lifetime tuning) replaced 2 so far @ no charge.
But they also told me that I might be too heavy for these wheels.
They offered a replacement with a stronger hardware for about $100
I am 6'2 230lbs and it doesn't seat right with me.
I am a careful rider, always get of the seat for potholes and bumps.
Should I demand they contact bike/wheel manufacture and have them take care of the problem?

Tel0004

I would. Trek advertises their weight limit on their hybrid bikes at 300 lbs. If you are 70 lbs under the weight limit, then it should work.

https://www.trekbikes.com/faq/questio...questionid=104

I bought a Trek 7.2 (same rim), and I weight 270. I broke a spoke after 200 miles. They replaced it with a rim from a Trek 7.3 (Bontrager Nebula), and it has been fine since (although its only been 100 miles, since this happened about 2 weeks ago. They said that the new rim should be stronger and not give me problems. I'm not sure if they requested a stronger rim, since I'm a big guy, or if Trek didn't have the correct one on hand.


When I brought back the rim with the broken spoke, they said they don't repair them in store, since trek doesn't reimburse them for labor, so instead they send it back. I didn't have a bike for a week do to this, so I was a bit upset, but ultimately it worked out. This is an independent trek dealer, so policies may be different, but at the very least, I would ask them to send you a new wheel, and make sure the spokes are properly tensioned.

oleg8888

Thanks Tel0004,
This was helpfull

grevian

I'm about 280lbs on the same bike, and I haven't had a problem so far, I've owned it for a year and commute 8km each way on slightly crappy roads 3~ days a week on average during the spring/summer/fall

MRT2

I think they should rebuild or replace the wheel. I ran into this problem 15 years ago with a Bianchi hybrid and after the third broken spoke, the LBS rebuilt the wheel, no charge. If your weight were really a problem, they should have told you that before they sold you the bike. More likely, you just got a bad wheel.

fietsbob

Dealer help , get it. service flows back through the dealer..

IDK the specifics , but maybe rebuilding the wheels with all new brand name spokes
can be done .

Given the millions of miles of wire used to make Bike Spokes not all of it is flawless.

many riders find the use of a Butted , thinner in the middle than on the ends , spoke makes a wheel More Durable
because shocks are distributed elastically in the middle rather than flexing at the hook.
that is rarely used on mass produced bike wheels below top Level.


The Marketplace wants Good to be cheap, but still the company has to be in the new stuff game
and shop people have to eat , and pay rent and all that ..

This the bike? https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes...series/8_3_ds/

oleg8888

that's the right model, mine has different paint job.
Also, the spokes on mine are black, not the stainless steel shown in the last picture

https://s7d4.scene7.com/is/image/Trek...0,0&iccEmbed=0

oleg8888

So the LBS came thru and honored the warranty. Well, at least they assured me the new, better wheel will be installed at no cost to me.
They will deal with manufacture directly.
I just fell in love with my LBS again

spokebender

I know the original Post was a couple years ago....but, good reliable replies are always a good thing to point one in the correct direction.
I weight in at 250 lbs and when I bought my new bicycle -- it came with Alex Rims which not only did the spokes break ALL the time but, eventually the whole rim potato chipped when I was 5 miles from nowhere.
I figured out that obvious after three times to the shop -- "That I was being taken for a ride by the money hungry sales and bike techs at the place I was going. That company is now out of business -- but, nevertheless -- my cycling life was a mess at that time.
The Alex Rims are not good for anyone weighting in over 180 lbs. The store didn't let me know this and I failed to do the research. I found that bicycle sales people can't be trusted with your life on a bicycle and anything that goes wrong will be your fault in the end. No one they say, is responsible for your life but you. Now I see the meaning of that saying.
My new bicycle technician/mechanic fixed me up with the correct equipment. He put me on rims to accomodate my weight and hard hybrid ride lifestyle...including new and heavier hubs.
Here's what I got for the best bang of my buck and I have been completely satisfied and haven't had a flat tire or broken spoke since.

I ride on .080 dia. steel spokes (never stainless for heavy butts - I learned the hard way) carrying 700 x 38 Specialized Infinity FlakJacket tires mounted on Mavic Rims which are A119/Front and A719/Rear. I asked about the A119 on the front and found that it's more than what I need for my weight and it being a front rim issue -- it never sees the brutality that the rear rim endures. I have heard some complaints about these hubs -- but, bearings and races don't just get pitted. They deliberately get left unprotected to rust or are subjected to some sort of caustic product or ran dry for hundreds of mile and the carbon breaks down from heat. Properly greased and tightened - they are perfect. These hubs, spokes, rims and tires are still on my bicycle and have seen over 3000 miles and without flats or other issues...except dirt. The rims are good upto a 300 lb person as well as the rest of the getup. I check for trueness after each ride and the rims never change more than +/-.010 even though the spots might change -- the out is always the same or less...and I ride the hell out of my bike over any and everything upto when I should need to change to a mountain bike. So if you are breaking spokes -- it's your heavy butt doing it. You need heavy duty everything.

I also have found that you need to replace your chain every 1000 miles at least so your sprockets stay in top ship shape for accurate spinning and gear changing. Otherwise -- you'll be replacing all your sprockets and chain at about the 3000th mile.

Bill Kapaun

What a bunch of BS & misinformation!

RedRockRider

Sounds to me like he is just sharing his personal experience.


IMO, it's poor form to state that a post is "a bunch of BS and misinformation", if you are not at least willing to spend the same amount of effort as the poster you are denigrating, to post "non-BS and non-misinformation".

Bill Kapaun

OK-
There's NOT a thing wrong with Alex or many other brand of rims, although there are "better" rims out there.
There's not a thing wrong with stainless spokes. You don't see wheelbuilders even considering galvanized ones.
It's ALL in the build quality of the wheel. Uneven spoke tensions result in a crappy build no matter what components are used.

mconlonx 

Alex rims are fine. Not top notch, but average, budget quality rims. Stainless spokes are industry standard.

Factory-built wheels work for most riders. But for some outliers, there may be issues. Like with the OP and follow-up post above. The common denominator in both cases? Service at the shop where the bike was purchased. For OEM wheels sold on bikes, shops should provide warranty service... like the OP's shop did. A good shop dealing with a reputable manufacturer should be able to negotiate a better-quality, or heavier-duty replacement wheel, as such situations might call for... again, like happened with the OP.

acorn54

glad to get some guidance about what constitutes quality rims. i ride every day as i have no car. i am on a second rear wheel after 1-1/4 years of bike use.
i also was too late to save my rear freewheel and have to use a different chainwheel and rear sprockets combination, after i put on a new chain. so from now on i will use my newly purchased park chain wear gauge on a monthly basis. fortunately for my modest bike a freewheel only costs about 13 dollars. (the bike is a fuji absolute 5.0, 2012 model).

GerryinHouston

I went through three broken spokes in a month (the time interval was 2 months, but I was away on vacation for a month...). The LBS replaced the Bontrager AT550 with a double wall Weinmann ZAC19 with double butted spokes.

At my (desperate) insistence, they tensioned the NDS at 60-65 kg and the DS at 103ish... No broken spokes since for about 1100 mi.

The LBS left the (initial) tension 45/72(ish) insisting this was a good rim and no further action was required. I bought a Park Tools tension meter, measured the tension on all spokes and then asked them point blank whether they were comfortable with tensions BELOW the low line in the Park Tools table. They sent me for a test ride and then quietly adjusted the tension to the levels I mentioned at first.

I could have done the job myself, but I wanted to retain their warranty obligations (I felt that if I tensioned the spokes and something went wrong for different reasons, they could claim that it was my tensioning that caused the new problem.

intransit1217

I had at-650s on my -13 8.4. I popped a spoke on the rear and thought it a fluke so I paid to have it replace at another shop. Then it popped another one when I had a load on. I made it to the nearest bike shop, and purchased a Giant pxc-2 wheel which has given me no problems since. In the meantime, I took the wheel back to point of purchase and they sent it in to trek under warrantee. They replaced the whole wheel with a better one. And it popped a spoke. The spokes were all breaking at the nipple. So it went back again. and I got another wheel, same kind.

Can you say pattern recognition? I asked about a better wheel than what trek was offering and they agreed if I stuck with the trek unit, likely more broken spokes. But they offered to put the warrantee wheel value towards a better hand built one. That would have been fine until the new Masi bike came in and I wanted to buy that. So i put the wheel value towards the new bike.

At the very least, put the wheel value towards a better wheel. That's my .02

Gnosis

My 2012 Trek Wahoo 29er hardtail came equipped with Bontrager AT-550 36-spoke wheels. The bike and wheels now have 3,927 miles on them and I’ve never had any spoke failures. I use the bike for commuting and long distance rides and it’s only been ridden off-road several times.

I currently weigh about 175 pounds, but I purchased the bike when I weighed 192 pounds (having dropped my prior weight from 210 pounds via several months of riding my 1995 Giant Rincon mountain bike).

I’m surprised these single-walled AT-550 wheels have stood up so well over the several thousand miles that they’ve been ridden. They’ve stayed surprisingly true since the time that I trued them soon after the bike’s purchase (they were only slightly out-of-true “laterally” from the LBS).

GerryinHouston

At the time I was 267 lbs give or take... Taking the spokes into compression does wonders in shortening their fatigue lives. That's why I insisted desperately to increase the tension and went through the expense of buying the Park Tools spoke tension meter.

The front wheel, which was tensioned at 86 kg (AT 550) is still going strong and reasonably true, well past the 2000 km mark. Both front and rear ar 36 spoke wheels.

I am replacing it though with another Weinmann ZAC19 which came with 2.6 mm spokes . I tensioned and trued this one to perfection and will be swapping it on Monday...

The idea of this exercise is to get all ZAC 19 rimmed wheels which can accept 28 mm Gatorskins. If the performance difference is significant, I will be ordering another rear wheel (ZAC 19 again, so I have a 28 mm and a 35 mm wheelset.