Wheel Building Questions
 

So I'm going to try to tackle my first wheel build this winter and I've got a few questions for C&V folks who've been down this road before. I've got Campagnolo Nuovo Tip High Flange Hubs (36 hole) and Dolomiti rims, but no spokes to start off.

1. Spokes - those of you who build wheels, where are you buying your spokes? Who has the best pricing?

2. Spoke length - no original spokes for me to reference, so how do I go about figuring the correct length and gauge?

Thanks for any advice. I enjoy the challenge, but need a starting point!

1. http://www.lickbike.com/

2. http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

In my experience with Campy hubs (both Tipo and Record), I've found I needed to use 15 gauge spokes (or 15/17/15 DB) as the thick hub flanges make 14g spokes difficult to use.

Neal

BTW When pricing spokes, be very careful about whether the price includes nipples or not.
Lickton's include them, but many places sell the nipples as a separate item, so what initially looked like a better price may cost more once nipples are added.

I bought spokes from Cambriabike a couple of years ago and, while it's pretty much the same price as Lick's if you buy them by the 20 when you factor in nipples (0.79 each for 14/15/14G DT Competition + 0.15 each for 14G brass nipples)... the fact you can buy them individually is pretty awesome. Who wants to buy 80 spokes when you're lacing up two 32-spoke wheels?, for instance. It's good to have a few extra but I like that you can customize the order. I would recommend going that path, especially as they also have many varieties of spokes if you decide to go with something other than DT Competition.

spokes
nipples

Here is a recent thread re buying spokes: LINK