Originally Posted by
SquidPuppet
...Is saving over $27.00 insignificant to you? That's two tubes, two rim strips, and a spare tube, at least. Or depending on the build, a seat post, or stem, etc.
You can't really "Take the shipping out" because you are actually paying it.
I'm not against triple butted spokes. They make good sense where their benefit is of use. But for my needs, and the OPs current build needs the benefits are moot, and the cons are real.
So, first of all, I completely agree that triple-butted spokes are overkill for my uses, but I can use whatever accounting tricks it takes for me to rationalize buying bike parts I don’t really need.
Seriously though, most of the difference really does come down to how you account for the shipping.
I’ll give you a real example. My basket at Rose right now has $198 worth of stuff, $89 dollars is for spokes and nipples for two wheelsets and $109 is for German lights that would cost around double if I bought them from US retailers. So even if you don’t buy the argument that I can allocate the entire shipping amount to those lights, which I was going to buy from a German retailer anyway, if I allocate the $19 shipping to the spokes as a percentage of the order, that’s $8.60 for the spokes and nipples. So a total including shipping of $97.60 for spokes and nipples for four wheels or $24.37 per wheel.
Compare that to 144 (36x4) double butted spokes from Dan’s at $57.60 + $11 shipping = $68.60 or $17.15 per wheel
So the real difference to me is $7.23 per wheel ($24.37-$17.15) on wheels that are going to cost me in the range of $3-400 per set. That’s nothing, and I still need to pay the shipping to get the German lights, so I still think the difference is closer to around $5 per wheel. I would say that falls into the range of rounding error, but everyone's case will be different.