Sevalecan

Another rambling post about my spoke stories, feel free to skip to the last paragraph to get straight to the point.

So, since it's a fair investment to get the tools to rebuild a wheel, and I'm still looking for a car to buy, I decided to stop the first heavy guy who looked serious about biking on the trail which I usually ride. I asked him if he knew any good wheel builders in the area. He recommended me to another LBS in town that I had forgotten about, and from what I've heard, the guy there is the man to talk to about wheels.

I'll skip past most of that story and just note, that while the people at this new LBS agreed that my wheel should be able to hold me and that the hardware it's got should essentially make it "bomb-proof," the wheel builder was hesitant to give me any assurance that we could eliminate this problem, so I e-mailed another shop that the guy I stopped recommended that's about 40 miles away, and have yet to hear a response from them. I will also say that the shop I did go to checked the tension on my spokes and said they were all right around where they were supposed to be, mentioning the number "60," if I recall correctly.

However, I was casually discussing my issues with someone where I work, and he referred me to another guy who works there who has actually done some work on his own wheels. This guy in fact knows another person there who's supposedly even better(and has been very successful with not having spokes break). I haven't spoken to the last person yet, but we'll name the second person in this chain "Jack." Jack mentioned that probably the only thing he could think of off the bat is maybe if the spokes weren't inserted in the correct direction, that is, so that the elbow rests inside the counter-sunk portion of the hub flange. After my unrelatedly bad day at work, I decided to go for a good old bike ride on the trail. As I was looking at my rear wheel to see whether the flange was countersunk on both sides, I noticed something.

There was a W on one of the spokes! I thought my old shop had told me they were all DTs?! Nope! Of course, it appears every spoke on the non-drive side *is* a DT spoke. However, the drive-side appears to be mix and match. I couldn't check the outside-end of the flange since the sprocket makes it basically impossible for me to see in there, however on the inside I noticed that most of the spokes had a W written on them, while one or two had DT's logo on them. It would appear that originally the drive-side was all wheelsmith, with spokes being replaced by DTs as they went along repairing them.

So, apparently my bike's rear wheel drive side is a mix of DT and Wheelsmith spokes. Go figure. I'm starting to wonder if this could contribute to any of my issues?

CliftonGK1

Dude, they're like matter and anti-matter! I'm surprised the wheel hasn't imploded, formed a singularity, and started sucking in the rest of the universe.


Mix 'n' match brands won't matter as long as they're the same gauge. DT and Wheelsmith are both reputable brands (along with Sapim, in case you ever see those.) I wouldn't worry about it.
My personal preference is for DT, but not out of any bad experience with Wheelsmith. I've just preferred them since I built some wheels with DT hoops.

prathmann

The only tool you really need to rebuild your wheel is a spoke wrench which is pretty cheap if you don't already have one. Truing stands, dial gauges, dishing tools, and tensiometers make the job a little faster and easier but aren't really needed if your goal is just to build one wheel - although a check with a borrowed tensiometer would be good confirmation once you feel you've got the tension at about the right level.

Sounds like your rear wheel has had quite a few of the DS spokes break already, so a rebuild does seem like a reasonable thing to do. If the rim and hub are in good condition I'd opt to get a full set of good quality double (or triple) butted spokes (DT should be fine) and rebuild it following the instructions from Sheldon Brown's website or Jobst Brandt's book (The Bicycle Wheel). See if you can borrow a tensiometer or have a LBS do a spot check of the tension.

Sevalecan

I do agree, that's probably the best thing for me to try at the moment. The guy at the new LBS I went to did say that it'd cost him 20 bucks to detension the spokes and retension them. (I guess that still sounds almost bad that it's so cheap), but they do say it will take him hours of work to rebuild a wheel, so I'm assuming they'll take their time and do it right.

I might be able to just buy the spokes and lace it up, then have him tension, dish, and true it(unless you think I should try to take care of most of that myself before handing it over).

Of course, in order to determine the length of the spokes I need, I need to know something about my hub's dimensions. Does anyone happen to have information on a Shimano FH-C201 by any chance? It would also appear my rim has an ERD of 620-622 mm

I'll probably have the spoke fixed on my old DiamondBack first just so that I don't end up missing good riding days this year. Stupid thing needs a new rear tire as well, though.

prathmann

I was envisioning you building the wheel yourself using either (or both) of the guides I mentioned above. Then just take it to the LBS for a final confirmation of the tension. If you're rebuilding with the existing hub and rim then you should be able to get the spoke lengths by measuring your existing spokes (one on the DS and one on the NDS). There are also lots of spoke length calculators on the web - look for 'Spocalc' for one example. [622mm seems way too large for the ERD since that's the bead seat diameter for a 700c - unless you have a 27" wheel.]

dscheidt

Anyone who takes hours to build a wheel is either not very good at it, doesn't do it often, or is lying to you. It should take a good wheel builder an hour, tops, to build a wheel, including the lacing and initial tensioning.

CliftonGK1

622 is the bead seat diameter on a 700c rim, not the ERD.

You're best off checking with Spocalc for just about any rim/hub combos you can think of. It's the tool I've used to calculate all my wheels except for one pair. Used the DT calculator for those since they were 100% DT components.