Originally Posted by maddmaxx
anything that relieves instanious stress due to radial loads (bump) at the elbow will increase the life of a spoke. The elbow of the spoke is by far the most common failure point. This failure is rarely caused by a single event but rather by repeated load/unload cycles and manifests itself as a work hardening of the metal and eventual failure.
Right, right, right. But if drive-side rear spokes, as well as front spokes, basically never break anyway, then lowering the instantaneous stress is a phantom benefit. I've only ever seen non-drive-side rear spokes break.