Spokes snapping at the elbow?

Snapped a spoke for the second time while just riding along this evening.

They seem to be going at the elbow. Is this due to poor roads and too many pies on my part or is it down to the wheel build? Standard rear wheel on an SS roadrat if that makes any difference.

Have you been retensioning/redishing them every now and again?

The only fettling they’ve seen is a new spoke and true when the last one broke.

Fair do’s.

Do you have a disc on your roadrat?

Also is it radial lacing, the spoke pattern?

What make of spokes? Cheap spokes can tend to do this on a regular basis.

Spokes will nearly always go at the Elbow, it’s the only stressed bit. How old is the wheel

Do you have a disc on your roadrat? Also is it radial lacing, the spoke pattern?

No, V-brakes. Wheels look like this.

How old is the wheel

Had it since August – work is only 3 miles away these days so hasn’t done a lot of distance by any imagination.

Once a spoke’s popped, the adjacent spokes have to take the extra tension which means that they’re put under a lot of extra stress making them more liable to snap too. When you replace a broken spoke you’ve got to spend some time balancing out the tension all round the wheel again and then re-true.

Cotic don’t mention the spec for your spokes on their website which *probably* means they’re a cheapo plain guage type. You could look at this situation as a great opportunity for an upgrade – I’d go for DT Revolutions or Sapim Lasers!

I’ve also had a 3 or 4 spokes break on my roadrat. First one when I rode over a stone, the rest just riding along. Is 95kg too much on a 28 spoke wheel? plus would towing a trailer put extra load on?

It’s almost certainly due to the spoke(s) being too loose (now or in the past). Unfortunately this means early failure of the spokes and even retensioning the wheel doesn’t always solve it for long as several spokes may have been damaged and you’ll gradually have more spokes break (basically, loose spokes flex more and therefore fatigue quicker.

The best solution is to rebuild the wheel and replace all the spokes. Otherwise, learn how to replace spokes one at a time (and carry some with you if you’re likely to get stuck out in the middle of nowhere!)

Canis – it’s hard to say about 28 spokes – depends on the rest of the wheel and how it was built.

The spoke breaking after riding over a stone was only it finally snapping – the damage was already done before hand and it would have gone eventually anyway.

A trailer would put more load on the back wheel so would make any problems happen faster.

I go for DT Competition’s over Revolutions if I was worried about spokes snapping.

Revolutions are no less durable than competitions in my experience (unless you’re sticking sticks/chains into your spokes) – they’re just more hassle to build with.

2nd Clubber on the Revs if properly built. Thinner spoke = more ability to flex = stronger wheel. Revs are chunky enough where they need to be.