Bicycle Mechanics - best place to order spokes online?

anyone know? specifically looking for a combination of butted standand and straight-pull spokes. replacing the crappy aero spokes on my rd-600. thanks.

Good selection and prices.
http://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cgi

http://www.icyclesusa.com/

I order all of my spokes from http://www.lickbike.com
Have always been in stock/available and brass nipples are included.

Nashbar has Wheelsmith 15ga for $7/20, 14ga for $8/20, 14/15/14 for $12/20, and *black* 14/15/14 for $18/20. Pretty good prices if you ask me, and they come with Wheelsmith brass nipples (I've ordered them before). http://www.nashbar.com/results.cfm?category=113&subcategory=1128&storetype=&init=y&pagename=

+1 for Nashbar, at those prices. I got enough 14/15/14's to build four wheels, at the best price I've ever seen for Wheelsmith (the only spoke I'll use--much better than DT IMO).

+1 for Nashbar, at those prices. I got enough 14/15/14's to build four wheels, at the best price I've ever seen for Wheelsmith (the only spoke I'll use--much better than DT IMO).
Glad to help!

How do different brands of spokes differ? I've only used Wheelsmith straight-gauge and they work well for me. What's wrong with the DTs?

http://www.wheelbuilder.com/thumbnail.asp?offset=0&deep=1&cid=15

hey thanks all... however, none of these places offer direct pull spokes. I might be SOL in that regards eh?

hey thanks all... however, none of these places offer direct pull spokes. I might be SOL in that regards eh?
Aebike.com has "direct pull" spokes and "regular" ones.

How do different brands of spokes differ? I've only used Wheelsmith straight-gauge and they work well for me. What's wrong with the DTs?

DT's are still pretty good spokes, but they make the elbows longer than Wheelsmith does. The distance from the spoke head to the bend is unnecessarily long, and they did this to accommodate machine building of wheels. That longer elbow makes it more likely that the elbow will flex more with each wheel revolution, hastening the fatiguing of the metal and causing spoke breakage. Peter White used to have a page up which detailed this problem, but that page is no longer up on his website. He switched to Wheelsmith specifically because of this issue, and uses them exclusively now. I compared both DT and Wheelsmith, and found that the workmanship on the Wheelsmith was jewel-like in it's finish and they just make a gorgeous wheel. I found all the claims that Wheelsmith makes on their website, to be absolutely true. DT can also be used successfully, but I'd recommend spoke washers to take up that extra elbow length. The bad news is that spoke washers are very hard to find.

DT's are still pretty good spokes, but they make the elbows longer than Wheelsmith does. The distance from the spoke head to the bend is unnecessarily long, and they did this to accommodate machine building of wheels. That longer elbow makes it more likely that the elbow will flex more with each wheel revolution, hastening the fatiguing of the metal and causing spoke breakage. Peter White used to have a page up which detailed this problem, but that page is no longer up on his website. He switched to Wheelsmith specifically because of this issue, and uses them exclusively now. I compared both DT and Wheelsmith, and found that the workmanship on the Wheelsmith was jewel-like in it's finish and they just make a gorgeous wheel. I found all the claims that Wheelsmith makes on their website, to be absolutely true. DT can also be used successfully, but I'd recommend spoke washers to take up that extra elbow length. The bad news is that spoke washers are very hard to find.
Thanks for that explanation, lawkd!

I recently had problems with spokes breaking on the elbows on the 32H rear wheel of my commuting bike. Most of them were on the left side. It's laced 3-cross. After 5 broken spokes or so, I got fed up and retensioned the wheel from scratch. I inspected the spokes and several had notched elbows. The notches looked kind of like what happens to a paper clip after you bend it too many times, which makes sense based on your explanation.

I should check what brand of spokes those were that were breaking...

I recently had problems with spokes breaking on the elbows on the 32H rear wheel of my commuting bike. Most of them were on the left side.

Yep, that's where it happens a lot due to undertensioning. The left side rear is always prone to undertensioning, because of the dish. Even when the right side has good high tension, it can be difficult to get enough tension on the left side. The more extreme the dish, the more of a problem this is.

You may need to replace all the spokes to keep this from happening, since they are probably all compromised now, at least on the left side. My personal rule is that three broken spokes = three strikes. Time to rebuild the wheel! And of course, get the tension as high as possible for your rim, and even tension from spoke to spoke. If you can respace your hub at all to decrease the dish, that helps too. It all depends how much room you have between your outboard cog and your dropout.

Easy:
http://www.oddsandendos.com
Wheelsmith spokes at a GREAT price.

Yep, that's where it happens a lot due to undertensioning. The left side rear is always prone to undertensioning, because of the dish. Even when the right side has good high tension, it can be difficult to get enough tension on the left side. The more extreme the dish, the more of a problem this is.
Yeah, Sheldon Brown actually suggests building new wheels half-radial due to this problem. Next time I build a non-fixie rear wheel I'll definitely be doing this. Unfortunately, my wheel has an 8/9 speed freehub designed for 130 mm spacing, so the dish is pretty huge.


You may need to replace all the spokes to keep this from happening, since they are probably all compromised now, at least on the left side. My personal rule is that three broken spokes = three strikes. Time to rebuild the wheel! And of course, get the tension as high as possible for your rim, and even tension from spoke to spoke. If you can respace your hub at all to decrease the dish, that helps too. It all depends how much room you have between your outboard cog and your dropout.
Makes sense to me. I only replaced the spokes that were visibly fatigued, and I concentrated more on even tension rather than perfect lateral trueness. No broken spokes for the past 2 months, but I'm aware that the problem may recur. I'll look into decreasing the dish, that sounds like a great idea.