If you're breaking spokes at the cross point it generally means that your wheel has come out of tension enough to allow significant play between spokes under high torsion (like when you're smashing cutties). One of the great things about carbon rims is that they're stiff, and they resist coming out of round/true better than aluminum, but that doesn't mean that they don't flex, and that your spokes can't still come out of tension. This can lead to losing spoke tension without being able to see it, resulting in more spoke play, and hence, spoke abrasion resulting in failure. A fatigued spoke breaks at its point of highest tension, generally the j-bend, sometimes the nipple, but not mid-shaft. Hope that's helpful. Also, really glad to hear you didn't get hurt in that crash. I had a similar one a few years ago, was riding an aluminum rim, and the impact potato-chipped the rim, but left my fork unscathed. Somehow I managed to not hit the tree with my body, and just had a nasty case of skier's thumb for a few months from the force of the impact blowing the bars out of my hands.
Sept. 25, 2019, 10:42 a.m. - skywalkdontrun
If you're breaking spokes at the cross point it generally means that your wheel has come out of tension enough to allow significant play between spokes under high torsion (like when you're smashing cutties). One of the great things about carbon rims is that they're stiff, and they resist coming out of round/true better than aluminum, but that doesn't mean that they don't flex, and that your spokes can't still come out of tension. This can lead to losing spoke tension without being able to see it, resulting in more spoke play, and hence, spoke abrasion resulting in failure. A fatigued spoke breaks at its point of highest tension, generally the j-bend, sometimes the nipple, but not mid-shaft. Hope that's helpful. Also, really glad to hear you didn't get hurt in that crash. I had a similar one a few years ago, was riding an aluminum rim, and the impact potato-chipped the rim, but left my fork unscathed. Somehow I managed to not hit the tree with my body, and just had a nasty case of skier's thumb for a few months from the force of the impact blowing the bars out of my hands.