Originally Posted by
XCSKIBUM
I'm setting up a small scale bicycle shop. The rural road that passes by my house gets a lot of bicycle traffic during the warmer months. There are also miles and miles of truck trails, abandoned RR beds and gravel roads in the immediate area hat are used by Hybrid and MTB riders.
I have a Hozan spoke threading machine and a stock of 2mm (14ga) black and silver straight blank spokes for the common hybrid and MTB wheels as well as 12mm and 16mm nipples for 2mm spokes.
I would like to carry the most common spokes for road bikes. What is the spoke diameter? Are they straight, single butted or double butted? Should I stock both silver and black? Straight. and single butt spokes would allow me to carry the longest length and cut/thread to size, but a DB spoke is limited as to how short it can be cut. Also, are aluminum nipples common or should I just concentrate on plated brass nipples?
I'm not looking to carry every spoke option for high end (non standard) bikes. I can source those within a few days from a supplier in a neighboring state. I just want to be able to do a quick spoke replacement if that is all that is needed. Complete rim replacement and wheel building should allow me enough lead time to source whatever I need.
The Hozan spoke threader is adequate for one off spoke replacements. I used one for lots of complete wheel builds before I got a shop quality machine, but I wouldn't want to go there again.
Double butted spokes typically have about 25 to 30 mm leeway for shortening, so with a stock of 305 and 280mm db spokes, you should be covered.
bladed spokes, like Sapim CX Ray only allow for about 10mm shortening, so if you're going to stock those, you'll need more sizes.