"Terry Morse" wrote in message
...
Peter Cole wrote:

Spokes never break in the center. 90% of the time they break at the elbow,
the
rest at the threads, that's where the residual manufacturing/building
stresses
are.

Never say never. I've seen a spoke break in the middle before, and
it makes a pretty spectacular noise. The culprit was corrosion,
probably started at a surface scratch.

Sorry, I assumed stainless, I've long discarded anything that isn't. I've also
had a few fail where they were nicked by a chain, but I thought the topic was
fatigue, not accidents or rust.

From:
http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/papers/...heel-Paper.pdf

"In 1984 and 1985, fatigue tests on stainless steel bicycle spokes were
carried out for Wheelsmith, Inc. at Stanford University. In 68 spokes the
failure occurred at the cold-worked elbow; in the remaining 8 spokes the
failure occurred at the threads."