Most the wheelsets on my vintage bikes I have made by lacing vintage hubs with new spokes to new (vintage looking) rims. In the past I always used DT silver spokes. Recently however there was a thread on vintage wheelsets and a poster suggested Sapim silver Race DB spokes for $.40 @ at Dancomp. https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...inor-rant.html. To be honest I had heard of Sapim spokes, but never looked into how good they were. Most of posts said compared the Sapim Race spokes favorably with DT Competition spokes. Usually I found DT DB Comp spokes for about $1.00 @ plus $.15 for the nipples; when I do find the DT spokes for less, they usually have limited lengths. So the other day I called DanComp (they don't take spoke orders on their web store) and ordered 72 spokes for $.40 @ plus nipples. This may sound stupid, but my question is, at this price, if you are looking for this style of spoke, why would you buy anything else?

There's no reason in fact. Spokes from reputed manufactures are of comparable quality and Sapim definitely is.
BTW, cool signature.

Sapim are of equal quality to DT swiss ATMO. I wanted to use some sapim cx rays on my cross wheelset but the $3.00/spoke was too steep for me.

...if you read that thread, you saw where I suggested buying DT's from AE Bike.

When last I checked, the price per box of 100 (with nipples) came in at about 46 bucks shipped.

Maybe that's changed, maybe you don't want boxes of 100, and Sapim probably makes a good spoke.

I have simply used DT spokes for a long time, and it is one less variable for me.

If you can make bags of 20 work w/the# of spokes you need, outsideoutfitters.com can bring your cost closer to $2.50/spoke. Not cheap, but cheaper.

I always use Sapim, they seem to be very nice spokes. I agree, I would not buy anything else for this style of spoke.

That is a great deal. They don't have problems with odd numbers? I definitely don't want to be buying a box of 100 at a time when I only build up a few wheels all with different sizes.

Danscomp is a great deal, and they will do any count you like. Only drawback is that you have to order over the phone, and they can't do really long spokes (for like 4x small flange 27" wheels), as they are BMX focused. I think 300mm is the max, but it's worth a call.

I've been using Sapim. I've used Leader (straight 2mm), Race (2, 1.8, 2)and Laser(2, 1.5, 2) on different wheel builds. I've been getting mine from Thor. No complaints.

I don't know whether it was the spokes, the nipples, the spoke prep I used for the first time (previously used grease), or what, but I had the absolutely worst luck building a wheelset with lasers. No problem with sapim race, so any more I build I'm going to go back to them. I just thought it'd be cool to do something different, but it's not worth the effort to save, what, 60 grams on a 36h wheelset. At least not to me.

I use grease on the spoke threads & nipples with lasers. As long as I get the NDS tension to 70+ I have not had any issues. I use Race on the DS. I don't threat the lasers any different than any other spoke.

I had always previously just used Park bicycle grease because that was handy to my bike tools, but this time I thought I'd try a new type of spokes and treat myself to special purpose spoke prep stuff. Next wheelset will be made with good old race and a glob of grease to dip the spokes and nipples in like I'm used to.

+1 Danscomp will get you what your need for a great price, if it's in their repertory.

The current price for silver double butted DT Competition spokes on AEbike is 73.99 per 100 https://www.aebike.com/bike-spokes_c_...tion%20Silver; the 46 bucks is for the non-butted Champion spokes.https://www.aebike.com/bike-spokes_c_...ition%20Silver

Many pics of wheels shown on these forums are those that are of plain spokes, not DB. The slight price increase of DB aside, any other reason(s)?


Regards,
J T

DB spokes look nicer

But also, per Sheldon Brown (on his great wheelbuilding page):

And they offer less weight.
And they offer less wind resistance.


Regards,
J T

Double butted spokes are a good solution, as explained above. The only downside I see is, during the maintenance phase (i.e. re-trueing) of a previously built wheel, the thin part of the spoke tends to twist (instead of the threads between the spoke and nipple rotating) when attempting to adust the tension. I have a recently acquired wheelset exhibiting this phenonemon. I may have to resort to completely rebuilding the wheels, if the threads between the spokes and nipples don't limber up sufficiently.