Is it outrageously cheeky to expect your LBS to work out what length spokes you need to buy for a wheel build?

Was using an old hub. Tried but could not get rim and spokes from the same shop. Took hub and rim to shop to try and buy spokes but was told that they would charge me for the time spent working out what length spokes were needed.

TBH the guy who had to relay this message to me seemed a bit sheepish about it. But if this is typical, then I won’t waste any more time visiting other places in town but will do the job myself and buy from the cheapest online source.

Walk into any other business and ask if you can use their services for free.?

If you are buying them from that shop then I wouldn’t expect them to charge extra for working out the length. If you are going to get them off wiggle or CRC then suck it up buttercup.
There’s plenty of online calculators to work out spoke lengths but you will need some digital callipers if your hub or rims are not listed.

yes a bit cheeky. plenty of online resources to show how to measure a hub and rim or get rim dimensions etc… and online calculators to give you spoke lengths.

Don’t be daft – I was trying to buy the spokes from them, and made that perfectly clear in the shop.

Don’t be daft – I was trying to buy the spokes from them, and made that perfectly clear in the shop

I think they are taking the piss. Vote with your feet.

That I did.

Now I’m just trying to gauge whether it’s worth trying elsewhere, or if selling spokes the right length over the counter is more trouble than it’s worth.

I would try elsewhere. A shop that does wheel building should have a stock of spokes that cover all bases. Failing that DT Swiss spokes can be ordered next day from any shop with a Madison account.

I normally use the Spocalc spreadsheet.

Sometimes I will sanity check the results using the DT spoke calculator

An LBS probably won’t go out of their way to help you avoid paying for their wheel building services…

Depends if working out spoke lengths involves having the actual rim and hub and checking its true ERD not just entering the manufacturer quoted ERD into a calculator.

I’d expect to pay for this as part of a professional wheelbuild, so it’s not entirely unreasonable to pay a small amount if the LBS is doing this properly for you.

If you’re just supplying hub measurements and ERD then I wouldn’t want to be paying for them to enter a few numbers in a calculator any more than I’d expect to pay extra for them to go through the order process for a part.

Use the online calculators.
I’ve never gone far wrong.

There’s plenty of online calculators to work out spoke lengths but you will need some digital callipers if your hub or rims are not listed.

Digital calipers would be nice, but I have always managed OK with a plastic ruler.

A shop that does wheel building should have a stock of spokes that cover all bases. Failing that DT Swiss spokes can be ordered next day from any shop with a Madison account.

But that wasn’t the question. If he walked in and said “hi, I want 16 262s and 16 264s” that would be different, but if it’s a quirky combination I’d not expect the shop to work it out FOC unless they’re building the wheel. That’s unrelated to the ability of the shop to supply the spokes.

Took hub and rim to shop to try and buy spokes but was told that they would charge me for the time spent working out what length spokes were needed.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Profit made on selling you a wheels worth of spokes wouldn’t cover the time taken to measure your rim & hub and calculate the correct spoke lengths so why would they offer to do it for free?

Is it outrageously cheeky to expect your LBS to work out what length spokes you need to buy for a wheel build?

In summary, yes.

Anyone who has built more than one wheel probably (hopefully!) has some idea of the process, and working out spoke lengths is about stage three, just after you’ve put the hubs/rims into the basket of your favoured internet retailer.

Have you never built a wheel before?

Interesting. I’d have had no qualms paying the extra to shop locally and get some help and advice. OTOH, it’s not a problem to do this for myself, but once I do I’ll have no qualms about shopping around for the best price and cutting out the cost of “service”. Just not particularly keen to pay someone an hourly rate for working out what they think I should be buying from them. And to be honest, after 15 mins in the shop, I was already beginning to think I’d have more confidence in my own measurements and calcs anyway.

It makes me laugh to hear the slightly denigrating tone of “your favourite internet retailer” as if that’s some guilty secret. For the level of service I didn’t get yesterday, I’d much prefer to sit at home, work out for myself what I need and buy on price.

Denigrating tone? What?

Is simply that mine is very unlikely to be the same as yours. I’m in a foreign country and Wiggle/CRC/merlin aren’t that much of a bargain when you get international postage and local VAT added on.

I’m no fan of the LBS, I’d like to see a significant percentage of them gone.

My bad. Thought you were suggesting I’d just bought the easy bits online, got stuck and gone to the LBS to bail me out. Apologies for getting the wrong end of the stick.