My local master wheelbuilder (I’ve heard great things of him) is building me a new rear wheel on my old pro2 hub.
I asked about spokes and he uses pg stainless. Should I pay the extra for some dt swiss competition spokes? Its for my ht. ArcH ex rim. I want them strong but lightish (I know the arch is a little heavy, but heard the crest was thin and old xc200 were dented to death).

Pricing them up its another £24…worth the weight saving and strength?

Wheel builder is Ray Halfacre in Pompey.

I always build with double butted spokes. To be honest, I thought most people did these days.

Unless you’re on a real budget, yes every time. More advantage to them than just weight. Personally I wouldn’t dream of building up a Notubes rim with PG spokes.

£24 is kind of steep for one wheel though, when the RRP difference on a box of 100 is only £15.

Definitely DB – lighter and stronger*. Only time I use plain gauge is when it’s a funny size.

*more resistant to fatigue, to be precise.

The issue is durability rather than weight or strength, but yes, DB every time.

The issue is durability rather than as well as weight or strength, but yes, DB every time.

Always, £24 per wheel is a massive rip off though. You can buy the spokes for about £15, offer to provide them!

Deffo DB every time. More eleastic stretch than PG so less likely to fail at the head. PG are false economy.

DT Swiss comp spokes are £6 for 10 and I’d need 4 packs. Should I choose an alternative?
Thanks

No, just buy them elsewhere €0.50 each.

Selling in packs of 10 is a bit daft, or 9 would make more sense.

Got em from Rose bikes for .33e each, but got to add on the del. Still cheaper thanks

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=91857
or £9 for 18,
Rose are very cheap on spokes, but the carriage levels out the price with CRC near enough. great if you are buying lots of stuff.

Sapim race?

23p each here

http://www.sdeals.com/oscommerce/product_info.php/cPath/35_54/products_id/326

Good spokes too – never had an issue with them.

Or £18 from CRC, where they’ve started selling spokes in multiples of 18 instead of 36. Packs of 10 makes sense, nick, as DT sell them in boxes of 20 (or more likely boxes of 100) – personally I quite like having a spare or two.

sdeals as above, or cyclebasket for cheap spokes 🙂

“ArcH ex rim”
For me I was deliberating double butted Sapims(2.0-1.8-2.0) or triple butted DT SuperComps (2.0-1.7-1.8) on these rims.

If you can I’d price up Sapim double butted (I think they’re the ‘Race’ model) as more so in silver they’re much cheaper than DT Comps.

“Personally I wouldn’t dream of building up a Notubes rim with PG “
+1. You’re paying all the extra for the ZTR rim, to scrimp on spokes?

I didnt scrimp on spokes, just asked as builder wasnt using db’s. I got the dt swiss jobs from rose

I’ve used aci a lot over the years without problem
Good spokes at a great price.
The Finnish is maybe not as shiny as Dt though

good to see there’s no mention of the ‘black spokes break’ myth…

😯

I didnt buy black cause they break 😉