Hi guys, thanks for having me on your forums. I will keep this as short as possible, and I'm sure a similar thread has existed in the past, but I really want to get everyone's opinion on this issue because I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.
I'm 190cm tall (6 foot 3) and I weigh in at about 73kg (~161lbs). I never do any bunny hops, I try to avoid potholes, and all that jazz, but I do cycle a lot. As a student who doesn't work in the summer, I typically train for anywhere from 75 to 150km daily. I'm not a very fast man on the flats, but I excel on the hills.
I started cycling 5 years ago. I bought a new KHS Flite 220 for about $600. Within about a month, I had a broken spoke. Then another. And another. And so on. Eventually, I bought a set of Shimano RS-20 wheels which lasted me about 20,000km before the spokes started breaking on them. At that time, I discussed rebuilding the wheels, but my mechanic noticed a crack in the rim and advised against it. This was last season, and by this time I had already purchased my 2012 Norco CRR One. At the time, I was using the Shimano wheels because, within 2 weeks of purchasing that bike (which comes with Easton EA-30 wheels), I already had 2 broken spokes. Anyway, the Norco sales rep gave me the rear wheel from his bike (which was identical to mine), and I rode a couple thousand kilometers on it without any issue. Then it broke a spoke. I contacted Norco, who replaced the wheels for me. Now, once again, those wheels, which have only about 600km on them, have a broken spoke. All three of these most recent sets are the Easton EA-30s. The spokes are breaking in the rear, and they are breaking at the bend. If I'm not mistaken, all the broken spokes have been on the drive side.
As I mentioned, I train a lot, but I've only ever done a couple of group rides so I don't really have anyone to compare myself to power-wise. I don't race. The hills around here aren't mountains by any stretch of the imagination, but there are a couple that are about 4km long with an average grade just over 4%, with steep sections at 10%. That said, I usually ride up several hills of this magnitude every day. When I test my power on the trainer (which I agree is not the ideal way to test), I usually put out somewhere in the 320-350 watt vicinity. This is at the intensity that I would ride up one of these hills.
So I guess my first question is, what is going on here? Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong? Are all these wheels I've had just [censored]? Least likely of all, am I too powerful for these wheels? And my follow up is, what do I need to do to make this stop happening? Thanks for your time, and thanks again for having me on your forums.
Cheers.