Cycling UK Forum

Went to ride home from work the other day to find that a car had hit my rear wheel and buckled it. Rim obviously toast, hub I think OK but can I get away with reusing the spokes when I rebuild the wheel?
Steve

I would reuse them, or at least most of them. Do they look damaged in any way?

Have you tried standing on the wheel to sort of straighten it?

Many moons ago, I was riding with my mate, and he hit a stone or something and buckled his front wheel. He just stood on it and boing! it went sort of straight and we carried on with the ride!

The spokes all look OK and since I plan to buy the same rim again I might try re-using them.

My guess is that your friend experienced Euler buckling. Spoke tensions near the limit for the rim then hit something > small extra tension and ping it forms a pringle shape (I managed this once when building a wheel). Much more likely to be able to spring that back in to shape than my wheel which has a definite bend.

It is an Exal LX17 rim so not that dear to replace.

Tape the new rim next to the old one and swap the spokes across.

Spokes are the inexpensive part of the wheel, worth replacing, it will make building easier too.
For reference, ACI spokes are probably 25p a pop and Sapim a bit more

S2L wrote: ↑29 Apr 2021, 2:12pm Spokes are the inexpensive part of the wheel, worth replacing, it will make building easier too.
For reference, ACI spokes are probably 25p a pop and Sapim a bit more

Cheapest from Spa are British Made plain gauge at £1.79 for 6 = 30p each.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/spokes-plain-gauge/
28h will cost you six packs = £10.74
Try the more expensive?
DT Champion at £4.49 for 12 will need three packs = £13.47

.................. but go to DB spokes.
https://www.sjscycles.co.uk/spokes-butted/
Sapim Race is £3.99 for six = 67p each and they're at the cheap end.
28h will cost you six packs = £23.94

Hardly "inexpensive".
Best use the one's you have.

Like Colin531 said, tape on a new rim and transfer the spokes across.

Double butted, include nipples

https://www.cyclebasket.com/m9b0s454p97 ... r_Singles_

Is there any reason to suspect there is anything wrong with the spokes?
If the spokes are OK, replacing them costs you both time and money, for no gain.
If the wheel is properly built and stress-relieved in the first place, the spokes will outlast at least a couple of rims (on a rim brake bike).....sometimes the hub as well.
If you are wheelbuilding as a business and posting wheels out all over the country, then you don't want your building to be judged by the condition of somebody's second-hand spokes; you can't determine the condition of the spokes by inspection.
Its different doing your own wheels, where you know their history.

531colin wrote: ↑29 Apr 2021, 4:29pm Is there any reason to suspect there is anything wrong with the spokes?
If the spokes are OK, replacing them costs you both time and money, for no gain.
If the wheel is properly built and stress-relieved in the first place, the spokes will outlast at least a couple of rims (on a rim brake bike).....sometimes the hub as well.
If you are wheelbuilding as a business and posting wheels out all over the country, then you don't want your building to be judged by the condition of somebody's second-hand spokes; you can't determine the condition of the spokes by inspection.
Its different doing your own wheels, where you know their history.

In my experience it takes longer to replace a rim than to rebuild a wheel, but that might be because I have built many wheels, and lacing only takes 15 minutes or so, cutting the spokes takes a minute.
If the rim has deformed that much, it is likely some spokes have a "kink", meaning they have been bent too much in the process. They might not be compromised, but they will make truing the wheel more difficult.
On balance, investing 10 quid on new spokes seems to me the right thing to do for peace of mind. In the cycling world, you don't buy very much for a tenner.

If you build wheels for a living, lacing-up is something you do on a night in front of the telly.....but if the OP built wheels for a living, he wouldn't be asking about it here!
For somebody building himself the odd wheel, its much quicker, and much less error-prone, to do as I said....tape the new rim next to the old one and swap the spokes across one at a time.
You can't get much anywhere for a tenner these days, which is why it makes sense to save yourself a tenner and re-use spokes......unless there is something wrong with them, and I remain to be convinced that is the case.
Last time I looked, LX 17 rims were about £17 ....Wow! I see they are £25 now!
All the same, I can't see any point in spending a tenner when you don't have to, and it won't actually buy you anything; as in the wheel will still be a wheel, with new spokes or the old ones.

If you re-use spokes, do yourself a favour and buy new nipples. They are very cheap and will be unchewed, with nice threads. You probably need the 12mm x 2.0mm size.

............ which gets me onto a subject I've considered raising a couple of time on here.

I have HUNDREDS of nipples spare in a tub. There's even loads of them kicking around on the floor, and they often get sucked up into the vacuum cleaner when I'm cleaning up in the workshop.

What do you do with them?
Chuck them into the recycling?
Nowt wrong with them, and some are brand new.

but if the OP built wheels for a living, he wouldn't be asking about it here!

Quite, and thanks everyone for the advice. I am going to have a go at re-building with the existing spokes as none of them seem to be kinked and the general consensus is that they should be OK. Will take the advice about new nipples, I have just enough new ones that astonishingly I have managed to find.

Finally got round to rebuilding the wheel. Used the old spokes with new nipples. Came together without any problems and is as true as any of the other wheels I have built.
Video below of the end result (the movement at the start is the wheel moving in the stand as I spin it)

[youtube]https://youtube.com/shorts/OxOXi2QQb98?feature=share[/youtube]

Steve

As we say in Yorkshire....."That'll do!"