Broken spokes

[fossyant]

does the amount of spokes in a wheel affact the durability of it?
I saw some wheels have 1/2 the spokes then a "normal" wheel (ie, Bontrager SSR). some bike shop said they are better as they have stronger rim, but the others said it is weaker as it has less spokes.

Varies........no scientific answer........

More robust, light (ish) and fixable...then hand built......

Very light specialist ...then mega bucks wheels....not fixable very quickly......

Off the peg fancy wheels - generally fine.....snap a spoke...you might wait a while...

The trend to go for lesser spokes will mean the wheel will go out of true a lot more..... break a spoke on 32/36 wheels..it's OK...not on a 20......

You won't get a 100% answer - it's factory vs handbuilt...weight vs fixing........

 

[Bigtwin]

You are only a bit heavier than me. I have Mavic Ks and Cosmic Elites and Crossrides - not ever had to even touch any of them in thousands of miles. And the roads here are shite. They are excellent.

Also have good hand builts - 36s on Open Pros and Records on my cross bike - faultless, though I do keep them tuned. Ditto a couple of other pairs of HBs.

So the moral is for me - factories have been 100% on the job. Good hand builts are good too, but seem to be harder to find now, unless you build and maintain them yourself - you can make a lot of expensive mistakes otherwise.