Originally Posted by
Bill Kapaun
After dropping my rear wheel (Sun Rims M13 II w/28mm tire) into an old fashioned sewer grate and bouncing my 240 lb. butt 8-10" out of the seat, I'll stand by my recipe.
It knocked the wheel about 2mm out of true. 20 minutes with the truing stand and tension meter and I had the wheel true and tensions back within 3%.
One might make a case that the 1.8mm J bend is already "pulled" further and thus has less potential distance to move/bend.
Well, of course, what works for you is what is best. I would only point out that spokes seldom fail due to acute stresses but rather due to fatigue from chronic, repetitive stresses over long periods of time. So the fact they withstood an abuse like say a pot hole is not really germane to the issue. Case in point: The popular Revolution spokes I mentioned above used to be 1.8/1.5/1.8. When DT wanted to make them more durable, they did not make the very fine 1.5 section heavier. They made the ends 1.4. Just trying to help.