"One size fits all" spokes

[graymee]

I've just come back form a tour on the Isle of Mull and I should have given the bike a better going over before I left anyhow, the creaking from my heavily loaded rear wheel degenerated into 3 broken spokes between Tobermory and Salen. Luckily there's a bike shop in Salen and I got excellent service there when the guy repaired my wheel and got me to the ferry on time.

He didn't stock a huge range of spoke sizes but used 12" spokes and a thread cutting tool to make spokes of the correct size. I've never seen this before and wondered why it isn't more common as it seems a sensible way round having to keep a large number of spokes in all sorts of obscure sizes.

I wouldn't mind buying a thread cutter like he had if I could find one. The tool appeared to be quite old, has this practice died out with the dinosaurs or can you still get the thread cutting tool?

[tatanab]

Thread rollers can be bought for about £70 (e.g http://www.webbline.co.uk/default.asp?pID=11) but can often be found cheaper on ebay (made by Cyclo). The problem is that the rollers work well on old style rustless spokes, but not so well on the stainless steel spokes that most of us favour these days. The rollers are not hard enough to cope for long with stainless. Having said that -- I have used a roller when I wanted a couple of extra millimetres of thread on a set of stainless spokes, so it is ok I suppose for occasional use.

[andrew_s]

It's less common then it used to be.
It doesn't work with the butted spokes that most people using hand-built wheels prefer, and there's the trend towards the boutique wheels like the Ksryrium etc.
I'd suspect it's more common it the older family oriented street corner LBS than in more up market sporty bike shops.

A spoke thread rolling machine, including the rolling die, will cost between £90 and £150 - Cyclo are the cheap model, and Hozan sell a similar roller at the upper end of the range.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclo-Tools-Spo ... B0052DY43O