Klink

Recently took it upon myself to build a nice wheelset, and thanks to end of the season clearance, came upon a pair of Velocity Aeroheads for a good price. I then decided I'd really splurge and pick up a pair of High Flange Paul Comp hubs (100 solid axle front, 120 flip/flop solid axle rear). The hubs were ordered via QBP (university bike shop's markup makes for a solid deal) so I called to get a spoke length calculation. I was given 291 for the front, and 292 for the rear. Given that it's a deeper profile rim I figured ordering a box of 72, 292 DT Swiss Champion spokes would work find considering the deeper profile of the Aerohead.

Here's the dilemma though. I laced up the rear hub last night, and even paid the extra special attention to detail by orienting the rim just right with the hub label and whatnot, but something was obviously wrong. The spokes seem to be a good deal too long (even the nipples fully tightened leaves me with completely untensioned spokes, as well as the tops of the nipples sitting flush with the part of the rim you apply rim tape).

I've rechecked the lacing several times, placed in comparison with other wheels, triple checked the spoke length, recalculated spoke length using Damon Rinard's Spocalc and doublechecked all the of the provided hub and rim dimensions to no avail. What gives? Did DT somehow put the wrong length spokes in the box I was given? Should I just take the rim and hub in separate to have the spoke length hand calculated?

I'll guess I'll just sit here and stare at my unbuilt wheels and fume for another day or two.

vpiuva

1. Check the actual spoke length - good thing to do before you start.
2. Where did you get your ERD?
and it sounds like you've done the following, but I'll list them anyway:
3. Make sure that you are making the correct number of crosses for the spoke length you have
4. Measure the hub dimensions yourself and compare those to the dimensions you were given

Klink

The spoke length measured by hand comes out to 292. I checked the hub dimensions and they varied slightly (center to left and center to right of flange) but not enough to drastically alter the necessary length of the spokes when I recalculated. I have the impression that their may just be something wrong with my lacing but I'll check again.

Soil_Sampler

https://www.paulcomp.com/frmhubs.html

https://www.velocityusa.com/default.asp?contentID=581

did a qwik calc. and came up with 290.7mm

Michel Gagnon

Based on the information I have, I suspect a lacing error.

I haven't checked the table, but on a deep rim like the Aerohead, using 292 mm spokes instead of 290 isn't a big deal.
My feeling is that you haven't pulled the spokes tightly enough. In other words – and I'm referring to this page by Sheldon Brown:
– You laced the first and second group of spokes correctly.
– When you installed the first leading spoke , you should have installed it four holes further down the road. You should have pulled harder on the wheel for that.

tellyho

I would also agree with a lacing error; has happened to me more than once that I did 2x when I meant to do 3x, etc.

poopncow

this may sound silly, but did you weave the spoke under/over for the third cross over?

I actually seen this once, but it didn't leave that much slop

wroomwroomoops

I concur with the above statements about lacing mis-count: how many crosses do you intend to do? Can you send a pic of the wheel, where the spokes are well visible (best in the proximity of the hub).

Big Steve

292mm for high flange hubs and Velocity Aerohead 700C rims sounds long to me. What pattern are you using? 3X? How many spoke holes? Assuming a 32-hole, 3x, 600mm ERD, 65mm flange width, 32.5mm C-to-flange, you should be using a 289mm spoke, according to UBI's on-line calculator. NOTE that my assumptions are based on a quick Google search. I suggest that you measure the actual ERD of your rim and flange diameter and C-to-flange of your hub. There is plenty of erroneous information out there.