I'm running CX-Ray spokes on 36H Kinlin XC279 rims, built 3-cross, on our rim-braked tandem and have been for some years. I've worn out a few rims due to wet, gritty conditions and just moved the spokes to the new rim. I might have as many as 9,000 miles on the spokes. This has all been working great. Love the rims and the spokes.

I've always built my own wheels. I tension them with a Park TM-1, always to 110 kgf on the front, in the rear a little more DS and a little less NDS. My rear CK hub is almost symmetrical. I tension them with tires unmounted.

This winter, I put on a set of Pirelli PZero tires, a new model. After a few hundred miles, my front spoke crossings started clicking. When I got home, I checked my spoke tensions. I was shocked to see that they were down to ~80 kgf. I retensioned to ~110 kgf with these tires mounted, then removed the tires. With the tires unmounted, the spokes were at ~136 kgf. I mounted a tire that I'd been using for years and spoke tension with that tire inflated was ~125 kgf. Both tire models were the same nominal size and inflated to the same pressure, though the Pirelli measures a bit larger when inflated. I put the Pirellis back on and went for a ride. There was still a little bit of clicking from time-to-time, but mostly the spokes were silent. They had always been silent for the last 9000 miles or whatever.

I understand there is some controversy among wheelbuilders over the issue of tensioning with or without tires. Most wheelbuilders tension to spec without tires, but a few who furnish hand-built wheels with tires mounted tension with those tires inflated. Some opine that if one tensions with tires inflated, that when one removes the tires, the rims will be ruined by the high tension. This obviously did not happen to my rims, at least not so far.

So, two questions:
1) What do you advise re: tensioning.
2) The fact that these spokes were clicking at the crosses indicates to me that they must have worn spots there, probably from all the gritty riding. Should I replace them all or wait for them to start breaking? Or do you think there's no big worry of breaking. I've never broken an undamaged CX-Ray. Our team weight is ~275 lbs. Oddly enough, only the front was clicking, though both wheels have about the same spoke tension. It's possible that the front spokes have a couple more thousand miles on them, or it could be the other way 'round. My guess would be that our rear is slightly more heavily loaded than our front but not much.

Thanks so much for any suggestions.