I have now been through fifty-one spokes in three years. I don’t think I’d ever broken a spoke in my life before that point.
The only thing that prompted me to think about this is that I ran out of spare spokes the other day. Well, I say “spare”, they were actually from my old broken fixed gear rear wheel that I’d been dismantling slowly having long run out of actual spares; the last thing you really want to be doing is using spokes from another wheel as spares as they are already undoubtedly not going to be in a great state, but needs must and all that.
So I finally ran out of “spares” and was umming and erring between a packet of cheap spokes (~£4) that fit or a packet of even cheaper spokes (£2) that don’t quite fit (but most of time “just about” do) when the inevitability that is my life happened and lo and behold I’m onto dismantling my good front wheel from my winter bike for more “spare” spokes. Although when I say “good” I mean it’s just been very reliable the past few years of winters - the wheel itself is actually as rusty as anything (spokes included). Of course, now I’ve had to start dismantling it you can guarantee I won’t be able to restore it to it’s robust and trustworthiness state for this winter. Oh well, hopefully that is some time away yet.