Faced Down The Ergal!
 

My rear Fiamme Ergal rim cracked and spit up an eyelet. It was dented, bulged, not round and, and in trying to get it acceptably true, I over tensioned it. My fault. Surprisingly, I found another pair of Ergal rims for a reasonable price, but then spent three weeks too intimidated to try rebuilding the wheel. I've previously built more modern, sturdier rims that practically true themselves and can take high tensions, like DS at 130 Kgf. Well, I now know that these old superlight rims can't take much tension. FBinNY said not over 97 Kgf. I was worried that I'd screw up another Ergal rim, and they don't grow on trees.

Last night I finally did it. Poured a beer, turned on a jazz station, and built the wheel. I was as methodical and careful as I know how to do. I checked tension frequently, worked little by little up to a self imposed limit of 93 Kgf on the DS (17 on the TM-1 scale), and the wheel came out wonderfully. Truer than any I've built so far, and at least equally round. This rim seems a lot straighter than the old one, the seller said he rode it for just a few months then rebuilt the bike as a tourer so the rims spent the next 30 years sleeping in a garage. DS tensions aren't perfectly even - vary between 16 and 17 on the scale - but seems okay. No eyelets starting to pull. I won't be able to ride the wheel until I get a new tire, but anyway I feel like I overcame my fear of the Ergal and learned something.

The nice thing is I bought a pair of rims, so now I can build a second rear wheel, and have a 14-17 corncob wheel and a 14-26 climbing wheel.

Did you use thin gauge spokes? Andy.

Congratulations. Today, I did battle with a crappy ancient Weinmann rim, and I won for the the most part. I'm fairly happy.

Not sure either of our endeavors was worth doing, but it's nice to know we can​ do it.

I re-used the original spokes which are double butted and 1.6 mm at the center. I weighed them and was impressed that they weighed almost the same as DT Revolutions. I also reused the original brass nipples.

I had purchased a new set of spokes (Revolutions) and alloy nipples, but decided to use those for the second rear wheel. I was half convinced this attempt would be a disaster.

Not sure what we think about re-using spokes, but I figured why not try it, plus buying two sets of Revolutions gets spendy. If it turns out to have been a bad idea, I'm now unafraid to rebuild the wheel again.

Congrats on the built. The light spokes are right for Fiamme yellows, and if built well should serve for years. I use 1.8-1.6-1.8 spokes on many of my wheels including the 26" commuter which has endured 20,000 plus miles of abuse and is still fine an will probably last until the brake track wears through.

BTW, the lessons you learned building a flexible rim like the Fiamme will improve all your wheels, allowing you to achieve even tension and maintain it through the build with minimal effort.

Sweet. Gotta be careful with that wind-up though...

IMO you're fine as long the spokes have never suffered the low-tension condition which fatigues the hell out of the elbows.

I've re-used spokes with all kinds of damage, bent straight with pliers, huge chain gouges, etc, never been a problem.

Jobst Brandt proudly said he reused spokes through years and many wheels. It's fine for your own bike. It might not be a good idea for someone else's, because you don't want to be responsible for problems you could have prevented.

FBinNY is right. Now that you've done this, you can do anything. ;)