Spokes too short?

[phcollard]

I know the subject came up more than once but I am still wandering...

I built a pair of wheels with some 6700 hubs that I had in the parts bin and Kinlin wide rims (forgot the name). Sapim spokes only come in 2mm increments and I rounded down by 1.4mm

I thought that was no big deal but the front wheel is already almost properly under tension and the spoke threads barely disappear in the nipples. Some of them are still showing maybe one turn worth of thread.

Am I better ordering a set of spokes 2mm longer or the hell with it? That's for my everyday bike.

Thanks a lot for your help!

[pavel]

yes - always round up. Never down. Especially if building with an alloy nipple - you want as the spoke filling the as much of the nipple as possible.

I would take that wheel apart and rebuild it with the correct length. 1mm in a spoke is not negligible.

[phcollard]

That's what I thought. Damn. I was looking forward to riding them next weekend but I'd better wait another two weeks to make this right. Right?

[aaronf]

this might be of interest to you:
http://wheelfanatyk.blogspot.com/2010/07/wheel-building-tip-no-9-succeed-with.html

[phcollard]

this might be of interest to you:
http://wheelfanatyk.blogspot.com/2010/07/wheel-building-tip-no-9-succeed-with.html

Interesting indeed. Thanks for the link. Ordering some new spokes tomorrow.

[ultraman6970]

Hmm.. did you try changing the crossing?

[phcollard]

Going from 3 cross to 2 cross would lead to spokes being 5mm too long :)

[mtnbkr]

Going from 3 cross to 2 cross would lead to spokes being 5mm too long :)

I think if you are .5mm long on the calc, round down should be safe. I would round up if anything more. So like 292.5 rounds to 292 where 292.6 rounds to 294. It's funny depending on the butting for sapim, the spoke lengths go from odd to even.

I've lived with having a partial thread shown on one of my builds, but certainly not preferred. It was with alloy nipples. Always safer to redo it with the correct one if all your spokes are short.

[oldpotatoe]

I know the subject came up more than once but I am still wandering...

I built a pair of wheels with some 6700 hubs that I had in the parts bin and Kinlin wide rims (forgot the name). Sapim spokes only come in 2mm increments and I rounded down by 1.4mm

I thought that was no big deal but the front wheel is already almost properly under tension and the spoke threads barely disappear in the nipples. Some of them are still showing maybe one turn worth of thread.

Am I better ordering a set of spokes 2mm longer or the hell with it? That's for my everyday bike.

Thanks a lot for your help!
Get the longer ones or get DT, which are easy to get in 1mm increments.

[binouye]

this might be of interest to you:
http://wheelfanatyk.blogspot.com/2010/07/wheel-building-tip-no-9-succeed-with.html

That Wheelfanatyk post is right on. Last year I was riding a prebuilt Sun/Ringle wheelset and broke an alloy nipple right the rim -- the spoke was too short and ended at that spot, so where the nipple hit the eyelet it was unsupported and just failed. Disc wheel, so I was able to ride home with it out of true, but it was annoying. Short spokes + alloy nipples = recipe for breakage.

[oldpotatoe]

That Wheelfanatyk post is right on. Last year I was riding a prebuilt Sun/Ringle wheelset and broke an alloy nipple right the rim -- the spoke was too short and ended at that spot, so where the nipple hit the eyelet it was unsupported and just failed. Disc wheel, so I was able to ride home with it out of true, but it was annoying. Short spokes + alloy nipples = recipe for breakage.

Spokes + alloy nipples = recipe for breakage

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