Originally Posted by
Doohickie
This is it. Just get a new wheel and be done with it. I bought a new, modestly priced (< $120 for both wheels) wheel set for my commuter after I started popping spokes on the original wheel. Solid as a rock.
Either you haven't ridden much or you got lucky.
My sense is that unless you get a high-end bike with handbuilt wheels, factory wheels will work good for a time, then the spokes start to break. When you break the first one, it over stresses those around it, contributing to the next break in a kind of domino effect.
The stress hardly changes. The spokes fail about the same time because its dependent on fatigue cycles and they've all seen the same number (at 750 a mile as they rotate past the bottom of the wheel and unload), magnitude of the variation, and about the same average stress (with residuals from the elbow forming operation being the big problem).
If you get your cheap factory wheels to high uniform tension and stress relieve them before putting any miles on them you'll probably be fine.