Originally Posted by
Tundra_Man
I've found once you break a spoke, the sudden stress put on the rest of the spokes often cause them to fail soon as well.
Nope.
Spokes fail due to fatigue, with the number of cycles dependent on average stress and magnitude of the stress cycles.
Not all of the spoke elbow was taken past its elastic limit when the spoke was made, so areas of high average stress remain in wheels that are not stress relieved.
With these areas having about the same stress in all the spokes, those with the same tension on top of that which undergo the same stress cycles (about 750 a mile with a tension change of 40-60% of bike+rider weight) should fail about the same time.