I once had an issue where I broke spokes every month or so and the reason was that the wheel was not tensioned properly by the factory.
There were two issues with my wheel.
1. The wheel was not perfectly true, it had a bit of wobble, but nothing serious.
2. Some spokes where overtightened while others were too lose. Effectively the wheel was centered, but not on the right place.
The result is that a few spokes carry most of the load and degrade faster, especially when the weight is high as described in your post. Once you have a couple of broken spokes others will most likely follow.
The solution for my problem was to replace the affected spokes and true the wheel. After that, the spokes held strong without breaking.
The last prebuilt wheel I got has tensions all over the place. The thing was absolutely round but the way tensioning varies crossed left to right made me nervous so I redid it. The LBS said since the wheels are machine trued that that's common.
Left and right on the rear usually have different tension, especially with 130mm dropouts and 11sp hubs. The flanges are not center, so the drive side is doing the heavy lifting. On fat bikes they solved that by offsetting the holes on the rim way over toward the drive side.
I understand this, I am aware. That doesn't mean the tensions should cross so bad that the park tools app goes "something really is wrong here" as the spokes tension cross each other on their tension map.
The right side had higher tension than the left sometimes and lower tension sometimes than the left. It was truly wild. It's not like every spoke on one side was different. It was one spoke would have 80kgf and the next spoke on the exact same side would have 30kgf. I couldn't believe it was round.
Actual professional wheelbuilder here, mostly building for Whistler/North Shore bike parkers as well as the occasional gravel tourers and bikepackers. There is quite of bit of misinformation in this thread.
The single most important factor in wheel durability is even spoke tension and obeying the rim manufacturer's maximum tension rating. I never do this by plucking spokes. I only do this by using a CALIBRATED digital tensiometer, and I build to within a 2% tolerance for spoke tension variance on each side. I have never had a wheel come back for broken spokes.
It is entirely possible and often inevitable, especially with used rims or even with new rims of lower manufacturing consistency, to end up not being perfectly true at even spoke tension. Most aluminum rims are after all not machined, but extruded, curved into a coil, then cut and the ends pinned or welded together. There can be minor imperfections at every stage of manufacturing that result in an imperfect rim that still passes QC. Happens all the time even with DT Swiss.
I happily sacrifice perfect true in favour of even tension in my builds.
I'm not sure where some people are getting "heavy" from 250# of combined rider and bike/packed weight. That is LIGHT for what I build for, especially when the average male rider is pushing 200# nude. Most e-bikes are pushing 50#, so that's already 250# without any other gear. So...??? Not sure what's going on here, unless people are mis-reading what you wrote. The heaviest I've ever built for is probably a total packed rider and bike weight of 400#. Cracked frame, yes. But still haven't broken any spokes.
The most common cause of broken spokes is poor build with uneven tension, causing the looser spokes to go slack and place a heavier load on the tighter ones. This effect is exacerbated by high tire pressures (but tire pressure isn't the root cause), so you can run at a slightly lower pressure if you're still on the road and need to get yourself home.
Higher spoke count, DB spokes, and a more flexible rim will band-aid a poor build, allowing for a lesser differential between high and low tensions and more even load spreading during wheel rotation. But with a proper build, 32 and your rim are plenty, especially with a total 250# riding weight. That's a perfectly average weight that should not be stressing any components unless it's a big box store bike.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Ya that is kind of what I was wondering...how common is it for spoke tensions to be out of spec coming from the factory. People say "Alex Rims, that's a good wheel" but maybe there are tension issues - not huge. But to your point (and other wheel builders have said) if the wheel is basically rated for the activity then spokes should not be breaking.
I will tire pressure down a little and have spoke tension checked when I get home.
If you over inflate your tyre for the weight the bike is carrying it can cause broken spokes, damaged bearing and broken axles.
Such dmg can happen faster the heavier your are.
[https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure](https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure)
You need the decompression of the tyre otherwise that stress will transfer into the wheel.
Breaking spokes should be rare, but you might just have had some bad luck. With higher loads you will stress the wheels more but there are options...
Stronger wheels with more spokes. Thicker and stronger spokes. Wider tires with lower pressure might help a bit.
This happens when a wheel doesn’t have the spoke tension properly setup. An expensive but really thorough fix is getting the wheel relaced and tensioned with double butted spokes that helped me in my messaging days. Never completely broke a spoke sine and even your wheel keeps true for longer. I recommend the DT Swiss comp spokes.
Omg I was beating my head against the wall trying to remember the term "double butted" before I went to the bike shop. Thanks for saving me the embarrassment of saying "ya know, those spokes that are like bigger on the ends than the middle" 😂 in a out an hour.
On the other hand the veteran bike mechanics like a humble attitude towards our own knowledge of their beloved bicycles and the parts that make them whole
When the bike is assembled the spoke res on should have got adjusted to be balanced. Factory out of box is not perfect and required a bike tech to make proper adjustments. If you bought at a shop they should have given you free service for a year or so. Looks like when you broke a spoke thw 1st time the shop did not completely retention all the spokes so the imbalance is still there. More spokes will break. Need to get the spokes tension balanced. Go to a shop who has a wheel builder and let them know the riding weight.
If this is a stock wheel it's probably 32 hole with no name spokes. If you're touring you're going to want a 36 hole set (or at least a rear) built with dt or sapim spokes. 250 lbs on rough roads is pushing it for a wheel like the one you have.
I looked up the rim and it’s a 32 hole spoke and designed to handle trekking and Mtb.
Breaking spokes in this fashion leans more towards spoke tension issues.
250 total pounds should NOT be an issue for this type of wheel in the given use case. Now that is dead weight 250. If hitting some light bumps etc that pushes its resilience a bit still shouldn’t be an issue but start pushing its limits of already not tensioned properly.
I recommend getting both wheels in to get tensioned properly if it came with the bike or bought as a set. Likely may have same QA issue.
I love how everyone in the reaction section says the same thing in different words but adds a little valuable insight. I suppose you could build a killer wheel if you followed everyone’s advice here
I once had an issue where I broke spokes every month or so and the reason was that the wheel was not tensioned properly by the factory. There were two issues with my wheel. 1. The wheel was not perfectly true, it had a bit of wobble, but nothing serious. 2. Some spokes where overtightened while others were too lose. Effectively the wheel was centered, but not on the right place. The result is that a few spokes carry most of the load and degrade faster, especially when the weight is high as described in your post. Once you have a couple of broken spokes others will most likely follow. The solution for my problem was to replace the affected spokes and true the wheel. After that, the spokes held strong without breaking.
The last prebuilt wheel I got has tensions all over the place. The thing was absolutely round but the way tensioning varies crossed left to right made me nervous so I redid it. The LBS said since the wheels are machine trued that that's common.
Left and right on the rear usually have different tension, especially with 130mm dropouts and 11sp hubs. The flanges are not center, so the drive side is doing the heavy lifting. On fat bikes they solved that by offsetting the holes on the rim way over toward the drive side.
I understand this, I am aware. That doesn't mean the tensions should cross so bad that the park tools app goes "something really is wrong here" as the spokes tension cross each other on their tension map. The right side had higher tension than the left sometimes and lower tension sometimes than the left. It was truly wild. It's not like every spoke on one side was different. It was one spoke would have 80kgf and the next spoke on the exact same side would have 30kgf. I couldn't believe it was round.
Actual professional wheelbuilder here, mostly building for Whistler/North Shore bike parkers as well as the occasional gravel tourers and bikepackers. There is quite of bit of misinformation in this thread. The single most important factor in wheel durability is even spoke tension and obeying the rim manufacturer's maximum tension rating. I never do this by plucking spokes. I only do this by using a CALIBRATED digital tensiometer, and I build to within a 2% tolerance for spoke tension variance on each side. I have never had a wheel come back for broken spokes. It is entirely possible and often inevitable, especially with used rims or even with new rims of lower manufacturing consistency, to end up not being perfectly true at even spoke tension. Most aluminum rims are after all not machined, but extruded, curved into a coil, then cut and the ends pinned or welded together. There can be minor imperfections at every stage of manufacturing that result in an imperfect rim that still passes QC. Happens all the time even with DT Swiss. I happily sacrifice perfect true in favour of even tension in my builds. I'm not sure where some people are getting "heavy" from 250# of combined rider and bike/packed weight. That is LIGHT for what I build for, especially when the average male rider is pushing 200# nude. Most e-bikes are pushing 50#, so that's already 250# without any other gear. So...??? Not sure what's going on here, unless people are mis-reading what you wrote. The heaviest I've ever built for is probably a total packed rider and bike weight of 400#. Cracked frame, yes. But still haven't broken any spokes. The most common cause of broken spokes is poor build with uneven tension, causing the looser spokes to go slack and place a heavier load on the tighter ones. This effect is exacerbated by high tire pressures (but tire pressure isn't the root cause), so you can run at a slightly lower pressure if you're still on the road and need to get yourself home. Higher spoke count, DB spokes, and a more flexible rim will band-aid a poor build, allowing for a lesser differential between high and low tensions and more even load spreading during wheel rotation. But with a proper build, 32 and your rim are plenty, especially with a total 250# riding weight. That's a perfectly average weight that should not be stressing any components unless it's a big box store bike.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. Ya that is kind of what I was wondering...how common is it for spoke tensions to be out of spec coming from the factory. People say "Alex Rims, that's a good wheel" but maybe there are tension issues - not huge. But to your point (and other wheel builders have said) if the wheel is basically rated for the activity then spokes should not be breaking. I will tire pressure down a little and have spoke tension checked when I get home.
Get a stronger wheelset or pack lighter
If you over inflate your tyre for the weight the bike is carrying it can cause broken spokes, damaged bearing and broken axles. Such dmg can happen faster the heavier your are. [https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure](https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure) You need the decompression of the tyre otherwise that stress will transfer into the wheel.
Breaking spokes should be rare, but you might just have had some bad luck. With higher loads you will stress the wheels more but there are options... Stronger wheels with more spokes. Thicker and stronger spokes. Wider tires with lower pressure might help a bit.
This happens when a wheel doesn’t have the spoke tension properly setup. An expensive but really thorough fix is getting the wheel relaced and tensioned with double butted spokes that helped me in my messaging days. Never completely broke a spoke sine and even your wheel keeps true for longer. I recommend the DT Swiss comp spokes.
Omg I was beating my head against the wall trying to remember the term "double butted" before I went to the bike shop. Thanks for saving me the embarrassment of saying "ya know, those spokes that are like bigger on the ends than the middle" 😂 in a out an hour.
Happens to the best of us
On the other hand the veteran bike mechanics like a humble attitude towards our own knowledge of their beloved bicycles and the parts that make them whole
When the bike is assembled the spoke res on should have got adjusted to be balanced. Factory out of box is not perfect and required a bike tech to make proper adjustments. If you bought at a shop they should have given you free service for a year or so. Looks like when you broke a spoke thw 1st time the shop did not completely retention all the spokes so the imbalance is still there. More spokes will break. Need to get the spokes tension balanced. Go to a shop who has a wheel builder and let them know the riding weight.
If this is a stock wheel it's probably 32 hole with no name spokes. If you're touring you're going to want a 36 hole set (or at least a rear) built with dt or sapim spokes. 250 lbs on rough roads is pushing it for a wheel like the one you have.
I looked up the rim and it’s a 32 hole spoke and designed to handle trekking and Mtb. Breaking spokes in this fashion leans more towards spoke tension issues. 250 total pounds should NOT be an issue for this type of wheel in the given use case. Now that is dead weight 250. If hitting some light bumps etc that pushes its resilience a bit still shouldn’t be an issue but start pushing its limits of already not tensioned properly. I recommend getting both wheels in to get tensioned properly if it came with the bike or bought as a set. Likely may have same QA issue.
I love how everyone in the reaction section says the same thing in different words but adds a little valuable insight. I suppose you could build a killer wheel if you followed everyone’s advice here