Cycling UK Forum

Is there a usual quantity in a box of spokes? Want to get a 20" fixed gear rear wheel built, but my LBS have told me that because the spoke length is not a normal in stock item I would need to purchase a whole box of them.

My supplier sells them in boxes of 100. Then again DT spokes come individually too.

What length do you want?
Spa Cycles http://www.spacycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m2b0s156p0

St John St Cycles http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/spokes-dept179_pg1/
These are in a wide variety of lengths:
http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/british-made ... -prod3145/

ACI come in boxes of 144.

For 20" wheels, these Halo spokes are the only decent priced spokes I have found.

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.p ... skha-bmxss

Find another supplier and tell them why. My LBS tried that one years ago, they don't do it now because they know I'll spend my money elsewhere for a long time if they do it again. (Just bought 36 Sapim Race 300mm for a 4X fixed wheel, they're on the shelf by my elbow).

Thanks for your answers, was being a bit lazy really there. A quick search on Ebay brought up prices for boxes of spokes. Not sure what size I need as I have no experience of bespoke wheelbuilding. Was thinking of having a go at building myself after reading Sheldons site, but there is quite a bit of capital outlay to build wheels. I may try somewhere bigger than my LBS, such as SJS etc.

Hold on, where's the capital outlay, beyond the components and a decent spoke key? Yes it's nice to have a stand to build it in, but an inverted bicycle works fine for a first attempt. Give it a go, it's relatively easy, relatively quick, and very satisfying.

Agree on that!
Use a bike to true and dish the wheels, and buy a decent spoke key.

Tips for lacing:
1. Build up the new wheel whist looking at another wheel. You can practise, and if you make a mistake, you can see where and how to correct it by seeing where you went wrong.

2. Make sure you have the valve hole in the right place. It's a great shame after making up a perfectly true complete wheel - work of art - and then the valve hole is wrong!

How do you determine what spoke length you need though?

quiksilver wrote:How do you determine what spoke length you need though?

When I was shown how to build a wheel (in the 1980s) there was a spoke calculator which covered all the common rim/hub combinations. It was a sort of card slide rule. I wonder if these exist nowadays?

I found building a wheel tricky at first but did get the hang of it. It's quite a satisfying thing to do when it goes well. In fact the back wheel on my Dawes Galaxy is one I build 20+ years ago and still going strong.

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/spokecalc/ tells you what length spokes to use.

The WheelPro version of Spokecalc has a very small database of hubs and rims, and no way of extending it.
The version of Spocalc at Sheldon Brown's site is much more comprehensive.

A very worthwhile project would be to extend the database of hubs & rims in that further, although it already has over 350 hubs and 500 rims.

meic wrote:ACI come in boxes of 144.

For 20" wheels, these Halo spokes are the only decent priced spokes I have found.

http://www.billys.co.uk/english/group.p ... skha-bmxss

That's gross !!

Thanks for all the advice and links, think I will give it a go and try building one of my own.

Do not believe the data bases!
They may be ok for hubs, but rims vary. Believe me, they do!
I had a pair of rims once and they were different ERDs.
I bought a new pair recently, and they were different again even though they were the same make and model.

Buy your rims and hubs, and measure them yourself, only then buy the spokes.