Originally Posted by
McBTC
The common understanding and it's not hard to believe is that a spoke is stretched and compressed over and over but I think the question is... how much are we talking about? It wouldn't take much to make a spoke, for example, feel slack or taut.
To be (more) precise, a spoke is stretched (tensioned) and less stretched (lower tension). If it gets to compress (i.e. loose all the tension), a wheel can collapse.