Originally Posted by FBinNY

I dinnt check every post so I apologize if this was mentioned earlier.

If these are stainless steel spoke, I strongly suspect "cancer", more precisely chloride stress corrosion.

Stainless steels of the type commonly used for spokes are vulnerable to chemical attack by chlorine. The combination of salt (sodium chloride) and high humidity, like in warm coastal areas can cause this. Essentially chlorides on the surface can migrate into the crystal structure and weakens the steel to where it has the n mechanical properties of dried spaghetti.

I've seen wheels break 1/3 of their spokes from tension alone while in storage.

Eyeball and do a somple test to confirm my theory. Look along the spokes gor black dots or lines, or squeeze paired crosses across to raise tension.

If this is the issue, every spoke in this wheel, along with every wheel built with this batch of spokes is going to fail this way.

FWIW this issue is possible in all stainless steel spokes, but can be prevented or slowed during manufacture. That's why it isn't universal, and b occurs in batches from time to time as a result of manufacturer error.


BTW this is a well documented issue in stainless steel. Anyone wanting to know more can search under stress corrosion or passivation.