ppg677

I stupidly threw a chain into the rear spokes. Older 36-spoke Fiamme tubular wheel. 9 damaged spokes on the drive side (every other one).

Well I replaced those 9 spokes with 14 gauge instead of the 15 gauge that makes up the rest of the wheel. I can't really think of a reason to undo my work tonight and get 15 gauge spokes. Can you? That's a 0.2mm difference in diameter.

dabac

Its not ideal, as different gauge spokes stretch differently. Means there will be some funky load distribution going on between rim and spokes.
But plenty of wheels out there have a couple of mismatched spokes and survive just fine.

hueyhoolihan

i doubt if there is anything to worry about, the worst thing that can happen is that you won't sleep too well.

Dan Burkhart 

The wheel will likely survive, however be aware that tension cannot be equalized by sound with spokes of differing gauge.

fietsbob

Music strings , to echo Dan's post above, reaches it's on pitch tension, lower, the thinner the string wire..

ppg677

I have a spoke tension meter. Surprisingly the 14 and 15 gauge have very similar "tone", but the amount of deflection in the spoke (as measured by the Park tension meter) is greatly different as indicated by the chart.

That said, guess I better buy some 15 gauge and do it right. These old Fiamme rims are not exactly the most robust in the world and yeah, the uneven loading is something that makes sense.

You ever have a bad day of hobbies? That's me today and yesterday. After getting frustrated with bikes, I went to my woodshop to continue the table I'm building and overcut the table top. F*$(#&@%(#FDFDFLK

fietsbob

I dont have a tension meter , When I built wheels 30 years ago no mass market offered them , so the plucking and feel had to do , and it did.


I play the Guitar and mandolin, for about that length of time, or More..