Originally Posted by
subgrade
Yeah, so that's more or less what I thought. Yes, I have disc brakes, 32 spokes. The rim has not been warped severely, but has been trued a couple times (had 2-3mm side to side wobble). Oh and all of the cracked spoke holes are with the drive side spokes (rear wheel), so it must be weak rim + overtensioned spoke issue. I'm getting a new rim tomorrow and hopefully it gets properly installed.
The drive side spokes are always going to stress the rim more, so it does not mean they were overtensioned. 36 spokes used to be the standard, as were less-dished wheels, rim brakes and non-anodized rims. As "improved" designs came about so did increased rim failures. You are the lucky beneficiary of the additive effect of all of those changes. In addition if you chose small profile tires that will also add to rim stress. I was very active mechanic for over 20 years, ending in 1997. As I did support for some large tours I worked on as many as 50 bikes in a single day, and I also raced. In all that time I saw very few failures of the type you had, and none as extreme.