Bicycle Mechanics - Wheel builders, question for ya!

Hi...

I build my own set of wheels time to time, I think i do a vgood job but there is a lot of stuff that i really dont know so here we go with my question.

I trying to repair a rear wheel (change all the old spokes), the brand of the hub and the rim doesnt matter , well I'm using same size spokes in both sides of the wheel and looks like it will work fine, but as makes sense the drive side will get more tension than the non drive side, there is a way to even the tension in both sides w/o having to buy shorter spokes??? Washers in the spokes heads maybe? In 10 speeds wheels the dishing it is too much to use spokes of the same size?

Thanks in advance.

UM

In many cases you can make the same length spokes work on both sides of a rear wheel, but the drive side tension will certainly be higher. That's expected.

I think that it depends.

If your cassette has 7 or fewer cogs, when you calculate the spoke lengths, the drive side spokes will generally work out to be 1mm shorter than the non-drive side. My rule of thimb is that spokes 1mm long or shorter will work. In that case 1 size works.

If your cassette has 8 or more cogs, the wheel generally has to be dished more and the recommended drive and non-drive spoke lengths usually vary by 2mm. If that's the case, I'd go for two different sizes.

Building a wheel is a fair amount of work and a main reason for doing it is the personal satisfaction of doing it yourself and achieving the best result you can. It's kind of stupid to jepardize that by cheaping out on buying spokes.

Typically for 8, 9, and 10-speed rear wheels the non-driveside spokes will have about 65% as much tension as the driveside. And the driveside spokes will be at least 2 mm shorter than the non-driveside. If the driveside spokes are too long you'll run out of threads before reaching the target tension.

Al

Hi again.. thanks for the answers.

Well Since the size of the spokes was sort of odd and hard to find in the stores 271-273 i went to the nearer even size, since 1 mm isnt that critical i went to the same size for both sides 274. Actually the wheel is round and nice but the non dive side might be like 20 + % less tension than the drive side. So I was just wondering if there was a trick to even the tension in cases like mine...

Thanks...

Hi again.. thanks for the answers.

Well Since the size of the spokes was sort of odd and hard to find in the stores 271-273 i went to the nearer even size, since 1 mm isnt that critical i went to the same size for both sides 274. Actually the wheel is round and nice but the non dive side might be like 20 + % less tension than the drive side. So I was just wondering if there was a trick to even the tension in cases like mine...

Thanks...

It sounds to me as if the problem you'll have is getting the rim centered (dished).

Hi again.. thanks for the answers.

Well Since the size of the spokes was sort of odd and hard to find in the stores 271-273 i went to the nearer even size, since 1 mm isnt that critical i went to the same size for both sides 274. Actually the wheel is round and nice but the non dive side might be like 20 + % less tension than the drive side. So I was just wondering if there was a trick to even the tension in cases like mine...

Thanks...

Not really. The tension differential is what causes the dish, which you need, so you can't eliminate it. The tension differential will be the same regardless of spoke length.

Spokes that are too long may be a problem, however, because you'll run out of threads on the drive side spokes before the non-drive side spokes come up to tension.

I have the rim very well dished... but my concern was about that tension differential retro is talking about. Im not going to get worried then...

Thanks again

I have the rim very well dished... but my concern was about that tension differential retro is talking about. Im not going to get worried then...

Thanks again

Yeah, don't worry. It's supposed to be like that. Actually, it's usually plenty more than the 20% you're talking about.