Looking at spokes for a wheel build – probably the new Mk3 Flow rims, and looking to save a few grams. Wheels for trail/E-word/uplift days, everything really, so strong/light/moon on stick needed.

I’m not light, probably 100kg. Always used DT Comp in the past – but looking at Super Comps as a way of knockign some grams – is that a bad idea? Revolutions are XC only, but have heard plenty folk using them – too light? Will be a 32-spoke standard J-bend setup.

Well as you say plenty of folks use Revs, safe to assume most of them don’t think they’re too light… Not really an answerable question though.

I have used super comps for years with no issues on all my mtb builds as you can (could) get them cheap from the German bike shops. But I have used sapim d-light on the last build, I needed the spokes quick so got them from JRA as they are local. Speaking to the owner he was saying they have stopped using super comps now and only use d-lights instead as they had quite a few failures of the dt spokes.

I’m using DT Revs in the next build but that is for light road wheel build. You just have to make sure they are well oiled and watch out for them twisting when truing.

I’m giving Ali nipples a first go to this build, as the latest polyax sapim nipples reckon the anodising is better than brass for corrosion. We’ll see….

It depends. A lot of the lighter spokes are, supposedly, as strong as the cheaper heavier ones.

I would say too light is when you start snapping them (when they’re correctly tensioned), someone else will be along to make claims about some delicate balance between flex and stiffness.

Depends how stiff the rims are and how much flex you like to have.

Some people prefer really stiff wheelsets, others prefer a little give.

Revolutions are fine with stongish rims like the Flow MK3’s.

As above, consider the wheel as a whole. For a rim like that, I stick with comps. For a stiffer carbon rim, I’ve used cx-ray and d-lights.

Onzadog – Member
As above, consider the wheel as a whole.

Yeah… no carbon for me this time round, so comps are the safe option, just torn between going the safe (cheap) option and risking a little reliability to save some grams., so wondering what others get away with. LBS don’t deal with Sapim so DT it has to be.

Super Comps use a 1.8 mm thread rather than the more common 2.0 mm thread so they can be a bit awkward if you need to source replacement nipples in a hurry or build rims that need dedicated nipples as these will almost always be 2.0 mm.

For the sake of 60 grams a wheel you can’t go wrong with Comps, especially on a wheel that’s going to get ridden hard, they’re popular for a reason.

Wheel stiffness isn’t just based on alu vs carbon.

The flows will be massively stiff laterally simply because of how wide they are. Note that Syntace (who pretty much pioneered the light but wide rims) use cx-rays for their wheel builds.

Recently had some DT Aerocomps built into a DT350 SP/EX471 build. No problems here (at 14st) doing a bit of everything on them..

I like the DT Comp Race- that’s what’s in my LB wheels. Seems a really good balance of weight and strength and cost. But they’re fairly scarce, and they’re hard to google for too, so for that reason I didn’t use them in my last wheels 😆

It depends a lot on you. I’m flex-ambivalent I suppose, I had a set of low-spoke-count, lightweight, light spoke wheels and yeah, of course they were less stiff. But I didn’t really care. My carbon wheels are a hell of a lot stiffer, I don’t really care about that either. Sometimes it’s better, sometimes it’s worse, but after 5 minutes they’re just wheels.

So then there’s strength and tbh most times when I break a spoke, it’s either because the wheel’s clapped out, or it’s because something went in the wheel. And at that point it’s probably not so important whether you have weeny spokes or 2mm plaingauges, if you jam a mech in it something’s going to break. I’m not sure rim strength and spoke strength are that closely related, they’re dealing with different things.

88 kilos in my grundies here, but I have been as high as 95. Plus gear, that probably pushed me to 105. Super comps have been fine for the last 5 years.

If you’re buying new hubs at the same time go 28H and then beef up the spokes instead – you gain back the stiffness and strength you lost from dropping those spokes, and the weight difference becomes pretty negligible at that point. Also as mentioned the comp race is a more practical option than the supercomp if you still want to go lighter.

Already got 32h hubs…so locked in there. DT don’t recommend the Comp Race for “MTB Gravity” but do recommend the SuperComp (a bit), so was assuming the Supercomps were a sturdier option.

That said, they build their EX1501s with Aerolites, which they also don’t recommend for anythign beyond “MTB Trail”. I guess it’s all in the build.

EX1501s use regular Comps (28 of). Ive got some wheels built on comp races though, not caused an issue as long as you are careful on the build (I snapped a couple).

someone else will be along to make claims about some delicate balance between flex and stiffness.

Paging Juan. Juan to the thread, please.

Can’t go wrong with d-lights for strength/weight/cost.If money is no object the Cx-rays fulfill the strength/weight bit handsomely with a bit of aero thrown in for free.

benpinnick – Member
EX1501s use regular Comps

Hmmm… maybe 1750s then, am sure they did some light enduro wheelset with bladed ones

1750s used blades of some sort but tbh they weren’t that light (and, well, 5.1 rims, nuff said…) Looked nice though and a great source for 240S hubs now 🙂