Can i put 32 hole hubs on a 36 spoke wheel?
 

So I bought some hubs at a great price online, only to find out they are the wrong hole count. Is it feasable or worth it to try to respoke with 4 less spokes? Has anyone done this? Any information would be great! Thank you so much!
Scott

Not by any normal pattern. The easy to work with mis-match is to only use 3/4 of the number of spoke holes in the rim, the hub or both.

If you tried then you'd end up needing to calculate a lot of different spoke lengths rather than just needing one length (or two if doing a rear wheel).

Sheldon Brown has some stuff if you feel the need to get all mathematical:
Mismatched Bicycle Wheels by Benjamin Lewis

I think you may find it easier to either return the hub or sell it and get the right one rather than try to build the wheel with what you have.

no..

Technically, it is possible, but takes a lot of calculations to find the correct spoke lengths. 32 spoke rims are not rare, so just get some matching rims and lace them up.

yeah, I guess it CAN be done, but should you? NO. Just get the right hub/rim. jesus

32 hub holes, so 16 per side. 36 holes in the rim.

So what's your idea:

• Skip every 9th hole in the rim?
• Get a lot of different lengths of spokes, since nothing will be symmetrical?
• Adjust tensions in some way to compensate for this asymmetry?
• Or drill some extra holes in the hub?

I think the Sheldon page is a red herring - 28 rim vs 36 hub means not using 4 holes on each side of the hub, and 4 is plausible. But it's still dumb!

I think the answers in the correct forum (mechanics) would have been less encouraging. But you gave me a big grin.

Even if it could be done I'd never sleep at night if that was on my bike...

Bonus points for including a bulleted list.

Actually you can make a good rear pattern out of 27 spokes and 36 holes. 9 radial spokes on the non-drive side and 18 on the drive side. Put each NDS spoke between a crossed pair of DS spokes. Leave an empty hole each set of the crossed pairs.

What about the aerodynamic drag caused by boundary layer air flowing over an empty spoke hole instead of the smooth head of the spoke? That's probably 0.087 milliwatts of energy loss.

Worse. I fill in the rim holes with inverted nipples that have a short piece of spoke filling up the threaded hole. Very poor aero.

You could probably make a "clown wheel", you know, the kind that the clowns in the circus ride that are a good 50mm of-center....

And just think of all that additional rotational weight you have added... :eek: