Am I to fat for these spokes?

[honesty]

Coasting down to a give way and forgot to change down. I'm in a middle high gear so I stand up and give it a bit, and one of the spokes on my rear wheel pings. Snapped clean off at the nipple.

My question is, the spokes are DT Swiss revolution (32 on the wheel) and I weigh 100kg first thing in the morning. Add clothes, commuting luggage etc and your probably looking at a load of about 110kg... am I too big for these spokes or was it just one of those things?

[NUKe]

How old is the wheel and what is it's condition ? I doubt the issue is you,

[Audax67]

Couldn't say but I know the rider limit for my Trek is 100 kg.

[honesty]

Wheel is about 2 years old though I had to have it rebuilt after a few months as I snapped 3 spokes by over downshifting and jamming the chain in it...

[mercalia]

17 stone? quite heavy then. could be that the 3 spokes that broke in the first place means the rest are no good now? I just dont understand why wheels with 32 spokes are sent out? I see all the Montague bikes even their Mt bike series have them! Maybe you need to invest in a good solid ( rear? )( spa ) wheel? and put on one of those large discs incase you over shoot again? So to your question, yes u too fat get some stronger wheels.

[robgul]

The spoke pattern also has a bearing on strength - straight pull will not be as strong as crossed.

I'm about 92kg and have pinged a few straight pulls recently - about to take the offending wheel to get it respoked with 3 across.

Rob

[irc]

I've 16-17 stone. No issues with 36 spoke handbuilt wheels. Really not worth saving the weight of 8 spokes for weaker wheels when you are at the upper end of weights.

[honesty]

The wheels are 3x. I broke 3 spokes in July 2013 because I had let the rear derailleur get out of adjustment so I over downshifted, dropped the chain between the cassette and spokes and didn't notice until I stampd on the pedal to get going again. I suppose it's possible that I damaged this new broken spoke then, but it seems to have taken rather a while to have had an affect!

What lifetime are expected on spokes? By the way I have no idea on poke tensioning or anything so the wheels have had no maintenance since the rebuild 2 years ago...

I'm leaning towards ordering a new wheel with 36 spokes on the back just for peace of mind and saving the current one (once fixed) for a light weight non luggage carrying bike at some point in the future when I have the money for the frame.

[TrevA]

I'm heavier than you (about 113kg) and ride 32's on my winter bike without problems - Open pros on 105 hubs.

[honesty]

To be honest it's not the number of spokes, but rather the type that is my concern.

[eileithyia]

I think it may well be a combination of things, weight, type and strength of spokes, wheels, crossover and how you ride.... I had a friend who was always breaking kit but could often set off in quite 'brutish' way from junctions etc., stamping heavily on pedals; breaking chains and spokes in the process.

[irc]

To be honest it's not the number of spokes, but rather the type that is my concern.

But all else being equal more spokes mean less load per spoke.

But anyway DT say the revolution is the lightest round spoke they make. Maybe a heavy rider using the lightest spoke isn't ideal.

http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/Spokes/DT-revolution

The revolution weighs 283g for 64. The Super Comp is rated for slightly heavier riding and weighs 318g


http://www.dtswiss.com/Components/Spokes/DT-super-comp


but I'm not a wheelbuilder I'm sure someone who knows more than me will be on forum.

[Freddie]

If you have aluminium nipples and they have snapped at the head of the nipple then this can happen because the spokes are too short and they have not threaded all the way through the nipple. Another issue is dish, how many speeds and what OLN (dropout width) the wheel is?

If the NDS spokes are undertensioned, then they will work loose and cause problems, this happens more frequently the more sprockets you get at the rear. Providing the rim can take a high enough tension and the wheel is not heavily dished, then the spokes themselves would probably be fine for your weight. Spokes are incredibly strong, it is usually poor build or some other factor in the wheel that causes problems.

[honesty]

It's 9 speed on an OLN of 130 and a NDS spoke. Having removed the spoke and inspected it, it looks like a clean sheer about 2mm down the thread. This seems to me to indicate the spoke is too short? Would the breakage at the nipple be because of this?

[Vorpal]

I think that if you had previously damaged the spoke, it would have broken at the point of damage. But it is just possible that you put a side load into that spoke that didn't break it immediately, but led to early fatigue.

How did your other spokes break when the chain jammed in them? Was that incident near the current breakage?

Had you checked your spokes recently & were they all correctly tightened? You said they had not had any maintainence; does that include checking them? I do that when my bike has 'service day'; once a year on bikes that aren't used so often and once every few months on bike(s) that are used for daily commuting.

I wouldn't expect any problems with a 32 spoke wheel and your load. However, any bike that is used frequently, needs the spokes checked periodically and tightened as needed. You would improve the robustness with more spokes, but you would still need to check them periodically.

I can't say that I often find loose spokes, and I wouldn't expect any after a couple of years of use, but on a wheel that had undergone the kind of incedent you described And had not had any maintenance since repair? I don't think I'd worry about it. If you start popping spokes, that's another matter.

That said, I would normally expect that barring any incidents, my spokes will outlast the braking surface on modern rim-braked wheels.