I've been having issues with my rear wheel lately. First, a couple weeks after I bought my bike in May, I had a spoke come loose. No big deal, I took it to my LBS where I bought the bike and got it sorted out. A week later, the same exact spoke came loose again. LBS sorted that out as well and it was fine for a while without an issue.

After riding in the local BikeMS charity ride last weekend, I noticed some wobble in the wheel and had to adjust the brakes to keep it from rubbing. Yet again, the LBS sorted it out, but after about 50 miles, it happened again. So, today I took it in and got it trued and went out for a quick 15mi ride. Toward the end of the ride, I could hear some rubbing with each rotation of wheel. I stopped to take a look and sure enough, there's more wobble.

I didn't hit any huge potholes or anything that would be the obvious culprit. There are lips before bridges on the local trails here and there, and the occasional rough patch of road when traffic forces me to the edge, but nothing major (IMO anyway) that would do this kind of damage. I have 700x25 tires, and check my pressure before every ride, using 90psi in the front and 95psi in the back. The wheels are the stock Axis wheels that came on my bike. Has anyone else had this much trouble?

I haven't had this happen to me, but from what others have said, the wheel probably need to be rebuilt. From what I have heard if multiple spokes break or lose tension, its pretty difficult to perform a touch up job. Look into getting the wheels completely disassembled and rebuilt. I would think that the bike shop would know this if you happen to keep bringing in the same wheel repeatedly.

My last bike had the same issues. After many return trips to the LBS they became tired of the issue and started trying to charge me to fix the spoke. In the end I was tempted by a new bike from a different LBS. This bike was better quality as were the wheels and I have found myself thinking just how much more confident I am with these wheels. Also this shop has been 100% with taking care of me as it should be. Everything that was suggested to me indicated that the wheel would/should have been rebuilt to make it right. Hopefully your shop will hook you up so you can get that same feeling.

Demand a warranty replacement of the wheel. Done and done.

When my CAAD 8 was new I rode approx. 500 miles when a spoke on the rear Maddox wheel snapped. Dealer replaced the spoke which snapped again a week later. Cannondale rep told dealer to replace entire wheel set with Mavic Aksiums both front and back and CD paid for it. About a year in on that wheelset, the rear rim cracked near a spoke nipple and Mavic warranted the rear wheel and replaced it free of charge.

You keep saying the LBS 'sorted it out' but then the problem keeps happening. Doesn't sound sorted to me. Ask them to actually fix the issue next time instead of band-aiding it with a quick truing job. The fix being a combination of ensuring adequate tension as well as even tension balance all around the wheel.

I have a 14 Giant TCR, bought last September. Exact same thing happened to me. After the 4 spoke broke, my Lbs re-laced the whole wheel. I have about 500-600 miles on the rebuild and just had to take it back this last week because two spokes came loose on a 50 miler on Thursday. I rode 85 miles and climbed 5800 feet the last two days and so good so far. I can't find any answers either**********

Most stock wheels suck. That's one way the manufacturers keep prices down and they know that aside from the saddle, the first thing most people upgrade is the wheels. probably time to start pricing a wheel build.

I ended up taking it back to the LBS and they're contacting Specialized about a replacement wheel. I'm hoping I can get by without buying new wheels until at least next season.

The wheel was probably built with too little tension that and made true without making tension uniform so that spoke ends up with too little tension to keep the nipple from turning as it slackens passing the bottom of the wheel. That makes the wheel building assembly line run faster with less human labor for bigger profits.

This is especially common in the rear wheel where the non-drive-side runs at a fraction of drive-side tension.

Larger (over 200 pounds) riders exacerbate the problem, although in extreme cases even 150 pounds is enough. Wheelsmith invented spokeprep so they could sell over-tensioned wheel without dealing with warranty returns from heavier riders.

If that's the case, getting uniform high tension will fix the problem; and a new otherwise identical wheel may not because it was built to the same standards.

You could also have a bend in the rim so it can't be made true with uniform tension, although that seems unlikely in a few weeks.

If the rim is straight your LBS didn't have competent wheel builders achieve uniform high tension.

The right fix is learning to deal with your own wheels (I did that after getting a rear wheel which didn't stay true and a front that folded on a bump), although you could also delegate to a good one-person operation where the hands which earned the reputation are the ones which will work on your wheels.

The vast majority of "mechanics" in shops do not truly understand wheels or how to fix them. The wheel was poorly tensioned initially. Not surprising as most machine made prebuilts are.

You shop never re-tensioned the wheel - they simply tightened the loosened nipple and trued the wheel. That will never fix the problem.

The vast majority of shops don't have tensionmeters. If they do they either don't know how to use them or use them incorrectly. Even the "top wrench" is usually someone who learned from an old gray hair back on 32 or 36 hole wheels and crappy single walled rims where the tensions were so low you practically couldn't go wrong. Lower spoke counts and way higher tensions and stiffer rim profiles mean that the wheel assembly can store a lot of imbalance when assembled. If you don't completely alleviate that while tensioning and building then you're bound for failure.

So - no...your shop never "fixed" it. It's a poorly built wheel. In the hands of someone who actually knows what they are doing odds are it can be repaired correctly to the point of never having to worry about it until one of the sub-par quality components fails through normal fatigue...but apparently your shop doesn't have anyone good enough so you are stuck with the routine the rest of these guys have to deal with:

1. Learn and do it yourself (I have found that there really aren't many who can do this well without some direct guidance).
2. Send it to someone who does know what they are doing.
3. Have them warranty the wheel and get you a new POS out of the box machine built wheel that you can ride for a while until that one has a problem then do the whole thing again.

^^ I like how perfectly placed PSIMET's signature is as a 4th option here

It is possible to true some wheels with uneven tension. Uneven tension can cause all sorts of problems. Sounds just like what you have here.