If anyone could help me with this it’d be great.

I have a set of wheels which are Mavic 321’s on Shimano Deore Disc Hubs, 32 hole front an back, the rims are a bit on the burly side @ 570g’s each.

I also have in my shed a set of Alex DP17 rims, in 32 hole, now these are 470g’s each, quite a saving in my book.

What I need to know is, how long are the spokes on the Mavic set up as is, it’s a 2 cross pattern?

Will I need new spokes to re-lace them on the Alex Rims? If so what size?

I’m looking at keeping cost to a minimum hence the re-lace on the Deore Hubs to get me a lighter / less burly set of wheels.

Thanks in advance.

They are unlikely to be 2 x – more likely 3 x.

Easy to compare spoke lengths – line up the rims and compare visually – a spare spoke & nipple in the alex rim will give an accurate idea.

I appreciate £ is a concern but I’m not sure I’d bother: you may save more with lighter tyres & deore hubs are not known for longevity unles you service them.

why not take 1 spoke out and measure it then put it back at the right tension – fairly straight forward – or could you use the wheelpro online spoke calculator?

cynic-al – Member
They are unlikely to be 2 x – more likely 3 x.

Easy to compare spoke lengths – line up the rims and compare visually – a spare spoke & nipple in the alex rim will give an accurate idea.

I appreciate £ is a concern but I’m not sure I’d bother: you may save more with lighter tyres & deore hubs are not known for longevity unles you service them.

Cunning plan re: lining up the rims 😉

As for tyres etc, I either run Bonty Mud X’s in 2.0″ or Maxxis Advantage in 2.1″ for t’summer with conti XC tubes, so there’s not much to be saved there as I really like those tyres.

Servicing the hubs isn’t an issue as I do everything else on my bikes.

I suppose at the end of the day the rim is a fair chunk lighter (100g’s) although not quite Mavic 717 / DT 4.2D light, but I do ahve them in the shed. And I could probably sell the EN321’s to make some sponds 😀

Fair enough – 717’s are that much lighter either.

Enjoy!

I’ve had a look:

The EN321’s are 570g’s

The Alex DP17’s are 470g’s

The Mavic 717’s are 395g’s

But as I say I’ve got the Alex’s in my shed and the Mavics are £35 each

if it were me i’d buy another set of hubs for the amount of money it will cost, and then you’ll have a spare set of wheels. certainly deore level hubs can be had for peanuts. i wouldn’t try and re-use the spokes at all though.
the parts you are using are pretty common so they’ll probably be in reynard’s spocalc spreadsheet, and the dim of the hubs will be on shimano’s tech pages as well.
if you don’t have excel then download openoffice ( openoffice.org ) to run the spoclac sheet.
first wheelbuild?
have fun!

Del makes a good point – you could sell your wheels then and save a nuch of time/hassle.

IME mavic’s weights are “optimistic”

Whats the issue with re-using spokes is it because they’ve been under tension?

Can you build a wheel without a tension gauge?

a quick google shows the erd of the mavic to be 536mm and the alex to be 539mm. So you should be fine to swap rims. Just slacken all the spokes in the wheel, tape the rims together and swap one spoke over at a time, then tension up the new rim, easy :0)

As for those into buying new spokes for each build, why? Ive reused the same spokes for 3 DH wheel builds and never had a spoke break yet, or a wheel go out of true. Only replaced the rims as i wanted to try UST. Ok if a spoke is bent a certain way from a previous build you might have tension problems if you use it in another orientation but thats easilly solved with a little common sense as you build.

if you really must use the old spokes they need to be used in the same holes on the hub and in the same pattern. so basically the new wheel needs to be a direct copy of the old one. this is because the spokes have been tensioned up, and have been ‘working’ as it were, in one position. inner and outer spokes are pulled at different angles. if you go and put different stresses on them now i would expect the incidence of failure to be higher. warning – this may be mumo-jumbo, but i wouldn’t do it. spokes are cheaper than teeth. the choice is of course yours.
yes – you can build a wheel without a tension gauge. i’ve built a few and they’re still wheel-shaped. 🙂

Aye sorry Del was talking crap re not re-using spokes.

Will be easier if the valve hole lines up though (i.e. it’s between spokes that are wide apart rather than close together )

Cheers for that guys, might just give it ago over the next couple of weeks

*bike looses 0ver 200g’s instantly, yey