Hi folks,

Newbie to the forum but an experienced cyclist.

I'm 32yo and despite spending most of my youth on a mountain bike, over the last decade or so I have let myself go a bit (c. 240lbs). A few years ago I got an MTB on a cycle-to-work program, enjoyed it but found I was mainly riding on roads, so I sold it and bought a road bike instead. Predictably soon after, I missed being able to go off-road and the road bike ended up in the garage collecting dust, where it remains today! 3 months ago I decided to admit I had made a mistake and bought an MTB (Scott Scale 760), this time to be had in addition to the road bike!

In these 3 months I have done 500 miles (exactly, oddly), go out 3-4 times a week and am starting to see the weight come off and Strava times tumble. Hoorah. Unfortunately it's not been plain sailing lately...

A few weeks ago I had a couple of rear spokes break, only noticed by chance on a pre-ride inspection. Took the rear wheel back to the store to be repaired. Job done. Last week on a ride I had a bit of a fall, (landed in brambles & nettles, naturally), but found although I hadn't broken spokes, the front wheel had taken a knock and was out of true. Limped home. Took the front-wheel to the LBS to be repaired. Job done. Now a couple of days ago, on a fairly gentle ride, I braked approaching a junction and *ping* another rear spoke snapped, as had another at some point on the ride.

I called the store and spoke to a lady, she agreed it sounded like the hubs or spokes could be faulty and it would likely be a warranty replacement. I took the wheels back to the store, again, who have taken them off me and are going to speak to the manufacturer (The bike is a Scott, the wheels Syncros 32H 27.5")- however the guy behind the desk was less helpful than the lady before and said he thought they would just be told to repair the broken spokes and re-true the wheel.

Does this sound reasonable? I am well aware that I am a heavier rider, but I cannot keep losing a week at a time having my wheels rebuilt every time a spoke snaps (or even learning to do it myself). I am not much heavier than I was when I was riding my prev MTB, and I did over 1500 miles over 3 years on that one without any wheel-issues (Bottom bracket was another story...)

If I do get the same wheels back (repaired) and spokes continue to break (or worse - replacement wheels that also frequently snap spokes), would I benefit from some heavier rider-friendly wheels? And if so, what should I be looking for?

(Just to add - I am riding off road, but it's pretty gentle trail riding that I am doing, not hurdling myself down mountains or around berms at 30mph! lol)

Cheers for any advice or suggestions.

PB

That's the low end of the budget on a hardtail bike meaning some components are sub-par to get to that price point. Wheels probably being one of the cheapest components on that bike.

On stock builds, wheels are always a weak point for heavier riders. For a bike that is only 3 months old, I would expect the bike shop to make it right, either by rebuilding the wheel, replacing the wheel with a new one, or giving you a credit towards a better wheel. Once you have broken 3 or more spokes, the whole wheel is suspect.

I have had to deal with wheel issues twice over the years. The first time was over 20 years ago, and on my regular ride, I kept breaking spokes on my back wheel. Bike was only a couple of months old. After replacing several spokes, the bike shop agreed something needed to be done. They rebuilt the entire wheel, replacing all the spokes. That wheel has not given me a problem since. because the bike was still under warranty, they did this free of cost to me.

On my current bike, I ran into problems with the rim, but unfortunately, this happened after several years, and thousands of miles. While I expected to get more than that out of a wheel, the I had to pay the cost of replacing the wheel with a more robust wheel.

If the bike is 3 months old it's under warranty. I've found that some shops just don't do warranty work well. Either they are busy or lazy, probably depends on the shop. I'd hit up Scott or Syncros & tell em the rear wheel was tensioned improperly or has defective spokes. Spokes shouldn't brake like that. Front wheel, yep it happens.

If you ever decide to get new wheels I'd skip buying new & look for some gently used custom builds. It's amazing what a properly built high end wheel set can handle

the spoke tension on that rear wheel is too low. Replacing spokes without increasing the tension will just lead to more broken spokes. I would say that the shop should warranty the wheel. My rule is if 3 spokes break, it's time for new spokes.

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, sorry I only saw them now. I know the bike is fairly budget, unfortunately the wife has more important plans for my paychecks at the moment lol

Common sense prevailed and the store are having the wheels completely rebuilt by hand, at no cost to me. Still sucks I have been without them now for over a week while the sun has been shining!

If I have more problems I am going to look to replace with some better quality wheels (thanks for the used tip eshew!)

If you get the same wheels back that were originally on the bike you will continue to have the same problems.

If you make things the same ol' way you get the same ol' results.

Not if they are rebuilding them. Hopefully that includes all new spokes.