Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
About 15+ years ago there was a run of poorly made SS spokes. Many manufactures were affected, thousands of wheels. Spokes broke along their mid sections. The only clue was spots of "rust" or blackened something. The big brands honored silent warranties. Over a number of years I probably replaced dozens of wheels alone.
It seems that the spoke plague has not died. Andy.
This is exactly the case on my rear wheel. A spoke even broke when truing the wheel after replacing one of the other broken spokes. I bought the bike in about year 2006 or 2007, so it was not fifteen years ago as Andy mentioned. I still use the same wheel with about seven spokes replaced. I broke a spoke as recently as a few months ago, so it is still an ongoing problem. I will have to do something about it as I have put on weight and therefore put a larger tyre on the rear (28-622), which means there is less room for a tacoed wheel to go through the chain-stays on the frame. Also, no two spokes on the wheel sound the same when plucked. The bike-shop I bought it from was owned by a friend and I did not have the heart to tell him to re-spoke the wheel at his expense in the early days or now. DG.