Another note, spokes rarely EVER fail from over-tension or overcoming its ultimate-strength. Go ahead and calculate how much tension you need on a spoke to break it, you'll be amazed. Regardless of which one of our models you choose, the increase in tension doesn't even come close to the tension needed to break a spoke.

What causes the vast majority of spoke failures is fatigue. That's due to loading and unloading cycles over time. And the major problem with this is spokes that go completely slack at the bottom of the rotation due to inadequate tension.