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Why would spokes break at the bend?
It would be mysterious if they broke anywhere else. The bend is never perfectly supported
Just after lacing, while everything's still loose, it's worth flexing all the head-in spokes hard inwards against the flange - helps get them aligned a little better and improves the support a touch.
At least, that's what Jobst tells you to do.
jsabine-
Just after lacing, while everything's still loose, it's worth flexing all the head-in spokes hard inwards against the flange
If the forum had a proper search function, I'd find the post where I said exactly that. It certainly improves the lot of the outbound spokes, but @specialist reckons it's nearly always the inbound spokes which break.
gbj_tester
It would be mysterious if they broke anywhere else. The bend is never perfectly supported, so as the spoke stress cycles, the bend gets straightened and then springs back, eventually leading to a fatigue fracture.