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I was on a big road bike ride over the weekend and was in the middle of no where flying down a hill on a nice smooth road at between 35mph and 40mph when all of a sudden my rear wheel decides to give way with a great bang.
I broke a spoke and the wheel went completely out of shape stuck in the frame and refused to go round.
That bit I not that fussed about, what I was concerned about is the fact the I've only ridden about 120 miles on the wheel since my LBS fixed another broken spoke and trued it.
Is it to be expected that even after having it sorted it's going to be weaker? I hadn't hit any big pot holes (maybe one or two smaller ones but nothing that should cause this).
I'm in two minds about having a go at them for it.
cheers
If they did their job properly when fixing a spoke they should have tensioned it evenly and left it as strong as it was originally. For it to have broken two spokes without any major impacts in such a short space of time suggests that there might be something wrong with the wheel - what make is it?
Then again, it could be that they didn't true it properly - it's hard to tell.
Or it could be that the spokes have reached the end and more will keep snapping? Fatigue break maybe?
it would be unfair to have a go at them. My first question would be how old is the wheel?
I've once replaced spokes and others have gone soon after. The fatigue life of the metal (be it spoke or nipple) may be nearing the end and will manifest itself with spoke breakage.
the other thing is that when a spoke snaps an awful lot of stress gets dispersed through the wheel in ways that aren't intended.