Originally Posted by
FBinNY
The wheel definitely needs to be rebuilt, no matter the cause. But tension doesn't explain the mode of failure. Breakage at the head is virtually unheard of, and wouldn't be caused by improper tension. Properly cold headed the head is as strong as the rest of the spoke, so 5 identical failures there is significant.
That's what I was thinking too - that's an unusual place for a spoke to break. My question is: "How old is the wheel?" 27" says to me that it could likely be 25 years old. Why'd it wait this long to break?