I am currently halfway across the US on tour (about to leave Kansas for Missouri), and have had no fewer than 14 broken rear spokes on my Fuji Touring bike so far. This is happening about every day or 2 now. I have spoken to Fuji, who to their credit have been very responsive, and they have given me 2 options

1. Take the bike to any Fuji dealer to get it rebuilt
2. Send me a new wheel by overnight courier. They don't however have any touring wheels available and have offerred me this - "ritchey zero hub, straight guage wheelsmith spokes, ritchey aero ocr rim"

The problem is that there are no Fuji dealers near my route.

The wheel they are offering only has 32 spokes - do people think it would be OK - should I take it or change my plans to try to get to a dealer??

I gues my other option is to keep changing spokes and then get it fixed when I get home - only 3 weeks to go....

Thanks

I believe (and this is my personal view) that 32 spokes can take up the job for three weeks and then get your Fuji wheel rebuilt properly when you get back home.
Although 32 is not my personal preference (all my wheels are 36) many have stated that because the quality of rims and spokes is so good today, they can build good touring wheels.

Take the wheel to a bike shop and have it rebuilt in a 4x bmx pattern and this should solve it. Good luck to you!

Get a name of the Fuji rep you have been talking with. Call a fuji dealer (anywhere in the US) and talk with them about overnighting the wheel for a rebuild and them overnighting it back. Give them the name and number of the Fuji rep so they can get the warranty worked out in advance.

You probably can't get the wheel rebuilt overnight either by Fuji or a local bikesmith. Not with a good rebuild unless you're very lucky.

I'd say two options;
1-Call fuji and tell them you're on a tour across the US and would rather put in your Blog that they helped by replacing the touring wheel rather than an inferior 32 (which is okay unless your carrying alot of heavy gear.)
2- Buy a touring or tandem wheel either locally or via Bike Nashbar and have it overnighted a day ahead and keep the recipt. Send the old wheel to Fuji for a rebuild and have them send it to you r home. After the tour you'll have a spare rear.
Next tour leave the spare with a freind, if you bust a rear again they can overnight it to you easy.

And 32's are allright, but if you've got heavy panniers you'll have problems.

I feel for you, during May, me and my father did a 3 week Virgina tour and he was riding a brand new Fuji Touring bicycle and had broken spokes in the rear wheel many times a day, it was just ridiculous. At one point we stoppd at a bicycle shop in Lynchburg, VA and had the wheel completly re-trued, dished, and all the re-placed spoked re-placed with new, better ones. No good, still broke spokes continually. It was a real pain, but still ever found out what the deal was.

It doesn't really matter anymore though, when my father has it shipped (via UPS) back to his home in MN, the UPS people just had a field day with it, can you believe that crank arms can be bent in shipping? Neither did I, but I'm a believer now! Thankfuly he had insurance on it and they covered the cost of the bicycle and shipping, but man! Someone must have just had it out for the bicylce, I've never seen one tha tdamaged before, even at a dump, it really was appaling. I know that I will never send my bicycle via UPS though, can't take a chance like that.

Something's definitely wrong with those Fuji rear wheels! This is starting to sound like a broken record and I don't have any good advice for dreamy, but here's my story anyway...

*rant* I started breaking rear spokes on my commute, so Performance--where I bought the Fuji Touring bike--would replace them. Got fed up with the problem, so I had them send the wheel back to Fuji for a replacement. One month later, I get a 32--not 36--spoke replacement wheel. (I guess they think we can't count.) I had Performance contact Fuji again for a 36 spoke wheel. Been waiting 6 weeks for my wheel, with a tour coming up...I'm really losing faith in Fuji.

BTW--So far, the 32 spoke replacement is holding up well on my commute.

I had never heard of a wheel problem with Fuji Tourers. So I stopped at a LBS that sold Fuji and ask if they had any wheel issues. They said they had two wheels they replaced under warranty one of which was on the touring model. They think the culprit might be the Ritchey hub. Their theory is the chamfering of the spoke holes on the Ritchey hub is not sufficent and is causing the spokes heads to bind and eventually break.

Thanks for the responses, I actually decided in the end to do nothing, and get the wheel rerplaced by a new touring wheel under warranty when I get home as I only have about 10 days to go. I seem to be breaking them them less frequently now, probably because there are now only 2 orginals left on the cassette side of the rear wheel, which is where they all break (Next time I break one I will replace both)

I met a guy travelling west on a Fuji who had broken 22 and ended up just buying a new wheel, and several bike shops say they have seen lots of people with similar problems on these bikes.