Was literally “just riding along”, heard ping ping ping and stopped to see 6 spokes have all snapped on my rear wheel:

It’s a pretty new wheel (Flow on PRO III SP) and has a pretty easy life so far. Any ideas?

warranty. no question.

Wow 😯

As above, that goes back. I’ve never seen that many spokes snap in the straight length before.

Matt

Are they SP then?

Yup, SP. Thought it must be a case for warranty, just wish it had happened before I left the UK. Distinct lack of Hope dealers here.

As above, that goes back. I’ve never seen that many spokes snap in the straight length before.

I have, and it was caused by a LBS over tensioning the spokes.

Richc says who ?

Mine did the same – mines was reasonably slack from new – queried it with hope and stans. Both said no thats correct the stans dont like high tension

Rode and 4 or 5 snappages like above

Sent them back and funnily they came back much much tighter – as tight as i would expect a wheel to be i id built it my self !

You didn’t take it into a Leeds shop did you? 😉

You’ll probably need a long memory to get that one 🙂

Beginning to get worried about the hoops now…

I have older hoops (stans 355 on pro 3 xc6 front, pro 2 SP rear) and they have been absolutely brilliant, no issues at all.

A mate however recently bought some with stans crests/pro3 and pro2 evo and they were shite when they arrived – out of true etc. Had to get someone to spend time sorting them out. And seems he isnt alone with having some unproper built wheels!! Hopefully they are just a few oddball ones that have slipped through the nets!!

my opinion is that there must have been a bad batch of spokes out there.
because bad builds will have spokes snapping at the neck near the hub for undertensioned wheels. and on the 1st threads for over tensioned wheels. a snap directly in the middle suggests a problem with the way the spoke has been butted and drawn out. probbably a thin spot in the metal. causing a weak spot, if you get it rebuilt and it does this again then either use 36h wheels or 2mm plain gauge spokes.

Richc says who ?

Another LBS who had a very good reputation for wheels, I had two wheels built by one LBS, one lost six spokes in one go just like that picture (but on the front!), the second wheel lost 3 at once, and then after that I was losing one per ride.

So eventually I took both wheels to another LBS, who rebuilt them with the same type of spokes, and nipples on the same rims/hubs and the problem went way. I was told to ask the original LBS what tension they checked them too with their spoke guage, and when I asked, they said they didn’t bother with spoke tension gauges as they checked them by eye/hand.

richc, you don’t need to check tension on spokes with a gauge it is not an exact science, it will give an idea but different rims respond differently. It does rely on the builder using common sense when tightening the spokes.

So eventually I took both wheels to another LBS, who rebuilt them with the same type of spokes, and nipples on the same rims/hubs and the problem went way.

That would also fit with Dez’s theory about a bad batch of spokes which makes sense to me.

Mine’s been nowhere near an LBS and definitely not in Leeds… 🙂

Further to this thread I got in touch with the good people at Hope who quickly posted me some replacement spokes to Singapore.

If only all companies were as easy to deal with!