Spokes breaking?

[Fat Whacker]

I seem to have a real trouble breaking spokes on my rear rim. I am running WTB Speeddisc rims with regular black spokes. Last year I broke 2 spokes and I just broke another one the other day. The wheels were trued and tensioned in the spring by my lbs.

Are my spokes overtight? Is it just my fat ass that keeps breaking them? (I weigh 230lbs) Instead of replacing just on should I get the whole wheel laced again with new spokes?

Oh ya, my ride is an 04 Iron Horse SGS Pro DH.

[Futurelooks Guy]

Is it always breaking in the same spot? Any physical damage, like did it snag on anything?

[Fat Whacker]

Ya they seem to break just below the nipple. Absolutley no damage to the spoke other than the breakage. I check my derailleur and it doesn't even come close to the spokes so I know thats not the issue. The more I am thinking about it the more I am considering just getting them relaced.

[SkunkworkS]

Do you know if they were built with spoke prep?

Might just be your weight... Or the person building it doesn't know what the hell he's/she's doing.

[derwood]

breaking the occasional spoke on a DH bike isnt toooo uncommon.2 last year and one this year aint so bad.....for a fat ass......

[Futurelooks Guy]

Is it always the same spot on the wheel? Same spokes?

If the spoke nipples are breaking, they might be torqued too much to compensate for a bad wow in the rim. I personally would have detensioned the wheel a bit, replaced the spokes, brought the wheel up to true, then bring the tension of the whole wheel back up. But if the RIM itself is damaged, then you'll never get the tension even in that area of the RIM because you'll have to torque the nipples a lot to get it true. If you land on that part of the rim, the results might be unpredictable (ie: Nipple snappage).

Spoke prep won't help in this case because it just keeps the spokes from vibrating loose.

[HIBuLlitT]

I wish I only broke three spokes in two years. put in a new spoke tighten and ride.

[SysCo.]

ive been through 13 spokes so far this season, and ive ridden my bike thrice.

[HIBuLlitT]

^hack :lol:

[Fat Whacker]

Well now I don't feel so bad. I guess its not as big of an issue as I thought it was.

[wesleymantooth]

Did you ride through salt water? :( I did that once and on my next ride I broke 8 spokes on a XC ride. It didn't even occur to me how stupid it was until I started hearing snaps on that next ride.

[Futurelooks Guy]

Wesleymantooth has a point. If the spoke nipples are corroded, they can break for a couple reasons. One, they corrode, and two, during corrosion, they no longer move around properly in the spoke hole, which makes it difficult to judge how tightly you're turning them when truing. Try dripping a bit of lube onto the spoke holes and see if the problem goes away. Also, after getting spokes replaced, it may be necessary to get the wheel retentioned after the new nipples have seated.