DT 540 hub problem: needs big spokes. Alpine III?
02-18-08 | 12:54 AM
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From: Minneapolis
Bikes: Surly Long Haul Trucker set up for commuting and loaded touring, old Sekine road frame converted to fixed-gear, various beaters and weird bikes, waiting on the frame for my Surly Big Dummy build
DT 540 hub problem: needs big spokes. Alpine III?
I'm building a beefy new rear wheel for my touring bike. I've got a DT Swiss 540 hub (135mm spacing, 40h drilling). I'll be lacing it 4x to a Velocity Dyad. I was going to use typical Wheelsmith 2.0/1.8 double butted spokes, but I ran into a problem: the bend doesn't fit through the hub flange! Fortunately, I caught this with an extra spoke I had laying around before I had 40 spokes custom cut to a weird length.
The holes in the flange are drilled 2.8mm (according to specs) when most flange holes I have worked with in the past are drilled 2.5mm. The flange is also thicker than other flanges, in this case measuring about 3.9mm at the holes. Even with the oversize hole diameter, the thickness of the flange is too great to allow a "normal" spoke to make it through. I tried forcing a test spoke (Wheelsmith 2.0mm) to see if they would just pop through the difficult section, but it started making a notable groove in the edge of the hole and was still not moving easily. No good.
I looked at DT's spoke offerings, and the "Alpine III" seems to be what I need. It's a triple-butted spoke measuring 2.0mm at the threading, 1.8mm in the middle, and 2.34mm at the head. Photos I found in another BikeForums thread give me the impression that the Alpine III spokes have a more gradual bend at the head of the spoke Is this the case, and if so, will they fit the flanges in this hub without issue? I want to build a strong wheel to last many many miles, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot in the process by getting a bunch of incompatible parts.
If the Alpine III spokes will not work or are not a good choice for a different reason, what would be a good spoke that should fit this hub flange correctly?
thanks in advance,
Karl
The holes in the flange are drilled 2.8mm (according to specs) when most flange holes I have worked with in the past are drilled 2.5mm. The flange is also thicker than other flanges, in this case measuring about 3.9mm at the holes. Even with the oversize hole diameter, the thickness of the flange is too great to allow a "normal" spoke to make it through. I tried forcing a test spoke (Wheelsmith 2.0mm) to see if they would just pop through the difficult section, but it started making a notable groove in the edge of the hole and was still not moving easily. No good.
I looked at DT's spoke offerings, and the "Alpine III" seems to be what I need. It's a triple-butted spoke measuring 2.0mm at the threading, 1.8mm in the middle, and 2.34mm at the head. Photos I found in another BikeForums thread give me the impression that the Alpine III spokes have a more gradual bend at the head of the spoke Is this the case, and if so, will they fit the flanges in this hub without issue? I want to build a strong wheel to last many many miles, but I don't want to shoot myself in the foot in the process by getting a bunch of incompatible parts.
If the Alpine III spokes will not work or are not a good choice for a different reason, what would be a good spoke that should fit this hub flange correctly?
thanks in advance,
Karl
