[urmb]

My riding bud has a Trek Farley that was new last year. Only rides it in the winter. He is about 160 pounds and has started popping spokes at the threads lately. One broke about 3 weeks ago. On yesterdays ride he broke four on the drive side at the threads? LBS is just replaing the spokes, I am suggesting that he rebuild. Anyone have a good theory on why this happening. Could it be fatigue? Seems to new. I am on my third fat bike and weigh more and have never broken a spoke. Could Trek be using cheap spokes? Surely the threads are rolled and not cut??? Let me know what you know.

Thanks,
urmb

 

[Forest Rider]

Fatigue is a good start, but seems illogical on a new bike. My old bike used to go through spokes quite frequently.

On your friends bike, are the spokes under proper tension?

 

[Mr Pig]

Only way I can see this happening is if the wheels weren't built properly in the first place. Simply replacing spokes isn't going to be enough. You need to figure out what is wrong and fix it. It could be a number of things from the spokes being too loose to the rim being drilled wrong. Not something you should be putting up with on a new bike.

 

[Harold]

New last year as in December, or as in a year ago?

If the bike sat all summer, it makes me wonder where it sat. If it got parked in a garage near to where a car's exhaust pipe would belch corrosive exhaust, then corrosion could be a root cause. Corrosion could also be an issue if there was salt residue on it when it was put away at the end of the previous winter.

Like Mr. Pig said, there could be a lot of other reasons why the spokes are failing now, too. Poor build being high on that list.

 

[J.B. Weld]

I'm not sure how you could mess up a build in a way that is a that would cause spokes to break at the threads,I'd blame either defective spokes or some sort of weird corrosion.

At any rate the shop should stop replacing individual spokes and just rebuild the entire wheel now.

 

[SqueakyWheel73]

I saw in another post that Trek had been using non-butted spokes on some of their wheels. Pure conjecture but could that possibly be the issue here?

 

[Aglo]

I rode 4000km with a wheelset with non butted spokes, didn't broke a single one.
I weight 76Kg without gear, did 2m drops to flat, rode rocks gardens and yet not a single spoke broke. Straight spokes are not the problem here. Probably a combination of cheap spokes and bad lacing process.

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[life behind bars]

Google "Trek Farley broken spokes", many reports along with a recall by Trek.

 

[edubfromktown]

Meh- I bet the machine they use to build the wheels is stressing the threaded end of the spokes (heat or too much/off angle pressure).

I have three sets of non-butted spoke wheel builds that are all 10+ years old (and 5 sets of newer double and triple butted spoke wheel builds).

All of them are quite durable.

 

[127.0.0.1]

are the busted nipples/spokes clean as a whistle (spoke prep ok),
or evidence of corrosion ?

because salt, ice melt, or beet juice, not good for preventing spoke nipple corrosion
and I've yet to see factory wheels built with 100% perfect spoke nipple prep

 

[changingleaf]

I would call Trek.

It looks like either the spokes are bad or the spoke holes in the rim don't allow the spokes to pivot away from center as they extend to the hub. If the spokes are bent at an angle at the nipple it will stress that area of the spoke and the threaded portion is the weakest.

 

[meltingfeather]

They are definitely using cheap, straight gauge spokes, probably too short, a low quality machine build, and possibly unfavorable spoke angles.

If it's out of warranty Trek may or may not help you-- it's worth a call but don't expect much.

No spoke threads are cut.

SG spokes: