A few months back I had noticed a on two of the upwrongs that see very little activity in my storeroom that each had several broken spokes. On a little closer investigation one of them had about 6 spokes broken and they seemed to be at about the same point and adjacent to each other. My first suspicion was someone had either cut them or shoved a garden tool through them.
Over Thanksgiving I pulled the wheels from one of the bikes and went to the LBS to get a few spokes to replace broken ones. I presented the wheels to the shop tech and told him I needed 5 or so spokes to replace the broken ones. He immediately came back "no you need 32 spokes for each wheel because they are all shot." Wow that is really an up sell!! When questioned further he showed and told me the break points were due the chemical corrosion and asked if a had a pool (yes) because the pool chemicals (chlorine) off gasses and attacks the metal in the spokes and other metal components and stuff. I have had what appeared to be more "rust film" on tools.
Ended up buying 5 just to get the bike back on the road, but while truing one wheel another spoke popped and had to be replaced. As I was mounting the tire two more popped. Guess the next moved will buy 64 more spokes and do the whole set.
Lesson learned and the chlorine and other chemistry has found a new home. I did check the trike, the F5 and the other diamond frame. All have black coated spokes and no corrosion so I guess the coating made a difference.