Originally Posted by
Jtgyk
Thanks for the explanation and site.
So the fact that the body of the spoke is smaller in diameter than the threads will allow me to take up the extra 1mm since there is no physical "stop"
(of course at the expense of having fewer threads engaged)?
I'll have to see whether, in practice, this will weaken that particular connection too much and be on the look out for failure at the nipple.
Close, but still no cigar.
The spoke is smaller than the thread, but only by 1/2 the thread height, so the nipple will still jam when it's first thread hits the last thread on the spoke. The extra length available is because spoke companies tolerance their spokes and nipples around the concept of the ideal height being to the top of the nipple, so they leave room for over or under that ideal.
Thread strength is unaffected because the structural part of the nipple is the head (which is why it's important that spokes come well up into it), and the extra thread engagement below the head is meaningless either way. Think of a bolt, you put a nut on the end & and once the thread goes beyond the nut, the arrangement doesn't get stronger or weaker because of bolt above the nut, or unused threads below.
When you get the spokes, thread one nipple down all the way, and that'll show you how far up the spoke can come before you run out of thread.