Cannondale

2007 Road Warrior 1000

I've had this bike for just under 7 years and the rear spokes have broken 3 times in the last 3 years. This was my intro bike to cycling and I have since gotten "fairly into" cycling. I do 50-90 mile rides now every weekend in Spring and Summer on a road bike I've purchased(cannondale caad9), but would never do it with the road warrior. I have been stranded do to the spoke issue twice when I had to have people come and pick me up. I don't care how old the bike is. The bike cost too much for the spokes to break this often. This past weekend when the spoke broke for the third time a finally honest bike mechanic told me its most probably due to the "unothodox" spoke design. He said it "looks cool" but obviously not too reliable in the long run. Cannondale doesn't make the wheels, however. Still if a spoke breaks when you are at a high rate of speed or going down a hill this can potentially result in a very serious injury! These bikes are marketed to people trying to get into cycling and then when you do and start putting on miles the spokes break! Riding bmx style bikes for years and years as a kid me or any of my band of buddies never ever ever had a spoke break. And those bike's cost far far less than what I paid for my "road warrior". Be prepared to buy new rims if you don't upgrade to a road bike. Other than that the bike is fine.