Originally Posted by
danmyersmn
Now that I have picked up a truing stand (and a dish tool and tension meter that came along) I am looking at trying my luck at my first set of wheels. I am having some difficulty with picking the correct spokes. Well I should say that the online calculators I have tried have given me similar information but the problem is if I should go up or down in the spoke length.
I am going to be using Ultegra 6500 32h hubs and Sun M13-II rims. I plan to use a 3 cross pattern. Nothing fancy, just get through my first build with success.
Using 2 different calculators I come up with:
Calculators are: Edd (DT Swiss)
Front
Crosses Spoke length left Spoke lenght right Tension ratio L/R
3 299.1 (299) 299.1 (299) 100%
Rear
Crosses Spoke length left Spoke lenght right Tension ratio L/R
3 297.9(298) 296.3(297) 52%
It appears Rose Bikes DT Swiss Alpine III is a great price for spokes so that is what I was looking at. Any other better deals for a good spokes? The problem I am running into is the length options. I can get 296 and 298 but not 297 or 299. Can anyone confirm that I could likely go with 298mm spokes for the front and for the rear use 298/296? Please advise if I am way off. I read a few other threads and they all appear to indicate that the length has some leeway too it.
Thank you!
You probably won't find any cheaper AlpineIII spokes than those at Rose. Their price is below the wholesale price for the same spoke here in the US. You do have a shipping charge to add in...about $11 if I recall correctly...but that's still cheaper than wholesale.
As to length, going to a 298mm is a little short. It'll be tough to get the spoke buried as far as it needs to be in the nipple. It's
might work but you'll probably have more thread showing than optimal. I would suggest you use brass nipples over aluminum just in case. Aluminum works better if the spoke is fully buried in the nipple. If they are too short, the spoke is more prone to breakage at the nipple.
If you haven't bought your parts yet, you could always look into another rim with a smaller ERD. For example, the Alex DA22 is about the same price as the Sun but has an ERD of 593.9mm vs 610mm for the Sun. You would need 291mm (292mm in reality) spokes instead of 300mm spokes.