Originally Posted by
Jeff Neese
No. Assuming they are stainless steel spokes, they have infinite stress cycles. Unless they are bent or corroded, there is absolutely no reason to replace perfectly good spokes.
The reason the OP is breaking spokes is because of uneven spoke tension. Find a qualified wheelbuilder - someone that actually has a tensiometer and knows how to use it - and replace just the spokes that are broken. That's literally the single biggest factor in wheel strength, not the rim or the number of spokes.
A properly built wheel always includes spoke tensioning. If you insist on doing your own wheel work, you need one of these or something similar.
https://www.parktool.com/product/spo...ion-meter-tm-1
I sure hope that any build wheel had the spokes tensioned... I think that what was meant to be said is that better wheels have had a process that seats the spokes into the hub shell and rim holes under higher tension than what the final tensions will be. Besides the better seating (and reduction of future tension loss as the spokes attain this seating after many cycles of use) some builders also place lateral pressure on the spokes a short distance away from the elbows. This lets the spoke better take a straight line from hub flange to rim hole further reducing later tension loss (as the spoke straightens out with those cycles of use.) The last bit of building technique that might be meant is to end up with the spokes not having any "wind up" when done. That's when the spoke has twisted a bit with the nipple's turning. If the spoke is left still twisted after the final tensioning then these spokes will want to unwind as they go through their tightening and relaxing with each wheel revolution.
As to the need for a tension meter I will say that some need a gage to follow in a "paint by numbers" building style. This perception really only began long after many millions of wheels were made, over many decades, with no such tool. Only the budding builder's ability to look at a good wheel of known grade and transfer that wheel's spoke tensions to the first one they built was needed, or a mentor's watchful eye. As wheels lost spoke count and the rims became, stiffer and stronger, the need for higher spoke tensions grew. (And the effect of a broken spoke got worse BTW).
But the OP's wheel is not what I would call a low count spoke one, or the double wall/box rim mentioned as being a high strength/stiffness one so for the many possible choices that the Op might use the current wheel is a pretty mid grade one with a lot of spokes. Is spoke tension important? Yes but what's not is whether the average tension is 100 or 105, That the spokes are of about the same tension (per flange) is more the point and this can be confirmed by that so crude method used by so many wheel builders for those may decades, pluck tone.
To tension meter or not to reminds me of painting your home. Some feel the need to buy edging tape and spend the tine applying it (and sometimes still suffer from bleed over) when doing the trim color. Others just focus and produce a straight cut in line of paint (and risk spill over). In the end both methods can be great or poor depending on the person holding that spoke wrench (or paint brush). Andy