Originally Posted by
Jtgyk
The theory says that the butted spokes have enough "give" to allow the surrounding spokes to take added stress of occasional bumps and torsions instead of concetrating all the force to one, which can break the spoke.
I honsetly don't know about that. I've heard engineering guys argue both ways.
What I do know is I've seen a whole lot of spokes that broke at the elbow. I've seen a lesser number of spokes that broke right at the nipple. I've seen a few that broke after the chain overshifted the freewheel and buggered them up. I've never seen a spoke that broke in the middle.