Conference noted::bicycle

    Janice
    
    I would suggest that your boyfriend gets a handbuilt rear wheel from a
    good shop, with 40 spokes instead of the normal 36. He might consider
    making one himself.
    
    Bicycle wheels are normally immensely strong, and even a 215-pound
    rider should not normally have trouble with an ordinary wheel. I say
    "normally" because the problem may be one of technique: not getting out
    of the saddle on bumps, for example, or going over excessively rough
    ground, or carrying too much baggage on a light rim.
    
    
    Regards
    
    John

    I agree with .1 - most wheels should be able to tolerate a 215 pound
    rider.  Of course, any wheel will go out of true, but this should
    take a reasonable amount of time and miles.  I usually true my wheels
    about once (twice max) a season.
                
    It sounds as though your wheels are not being trued properly.  The
    spokes should be fairly equal in tension after being trued.  I would
    consider trying another wheel builder.
    
    Regards,
    Denis
    

    I am 210lbs(6') and have over 200miles on my 36 hole Mavic MA40 wheeles
    with NO sign of loss of trueness.  These wheeles were build by my
    local bike shop. I love em.
    
    P.S. 6' 4" 215lbs is not FAT! SOOOOOOO who is the "FAT" preson asking
    for help :-)  Are you 5'1" 150lbs?????? :-)

    John_who_could_use_to_loose_15!

    
    	I recently built a new rear wheel for a 240 pound person.  
    He had had problems with breaking spokes, and warping.   When
    I looked at his old wheel, it soon became apparent that the
    spokes were not tensioned properly.   When plucked, the note
    from the spoke was a low bassy sort of note.
    
    	I built him a new wheel with 36 - 14 guage spokes, and tensioned
    the spokes so that they have a nice midrange to treble sort of note
    when plucked.    He is having no problems at all with it, although
    too much tension could eventually lead to other problems...  (like
    spokes pulling through the rim   :-(   )
    
    	If the tension on a spoke is too low, when that spoke passes
    between the wheel and the ground, the tension is lowered, and
    if there is not enough tension the spoke goes entirely slack.
    Once the spoke is slack, the spoke nipple can move freely for
    a moment, since the friction from the tension is all that holds
    it tight.    Thus *really* loose spokes are a sign that the
    tension was not high enough in the first place.   The entire load 
    on the 36 spoke wheel is supported on about four of the spokes at 
    a time, so if the wheel were to support a 200 lb load, each spoke 
    should have a minimum of 50 lbs tension.
    
	Like .1 suggested, a wheel with more spokes is an option.
    Tandem bicycles often use 48 spoke wheels, and as he said,
    40 spoke wheels can also be found.    This distrubutes the
    tension across more spokes.    A wheel like this is very
    unlikely to have spoke failure, but then if you're mean
    enough to it, you get into other types of failures, like
    hub flange failure.    One problem there could be is that such 
    rims and hubs are a little harder to obtain.    (I've been 
    waiting for a 48 spoke 26 inch mountian bike rim that I had 
    ordered, for over two months now...   I want to make a
    "super" rear wheel for hauling trailer and packs on dirt roads.)

	Often new bikes come with wheels that don't have enough
    spoke tension.    A good bike shop will check this when they
    assemble the bike, but bikes from discount stores or from
    shops with inexperienced help may have low tension wheels,
    as well as all sorts of other loose stuff.    It pays to
    do business with people who really know bikes...

    						Alan.

    
    
    The title was just an attention getter--He is not Fat--It was his
    idea, sorry if I offended you.  BTW, I'm 5'9", 140lbs!!!
    Janice    

    I was not offended, I just had to make the comment.
    

    	I'm 225 and rode for a long time on a 40 spoke rear wheel (Nashba)
    until I started braking spokes frequently.  As someone already pointed
    out, its not the amount of spokes but rather the spoke tension that
    really counts.  I purchased a set of 36 spoke Mavic MA40's from Colorado
    Cyclist (Bicycle Mag Classified Pages) and have ridden them 1000 mi. 
    over rough New Hampshire roads without any signs of spoke problems.  
    If you watch the add's you can usually pick these up with Shimano 600
    EX hubs for under $125.  If he's just a recreational rider they might
    be the last wheels you'll have to buy.
    							Jerry

    I would think that you might have a riding technique problem of abusing 
    the bike...like hitting holes,bumps....I weigh 260lbs and am 6'1" and
    I have a Trek 820s. Having had the bike for over 2 years and probably
    put over 2k miles on it without any problems...execpt that of changing
    out the chains when it stretches...
    mike