Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
  • Rim swapping advice please
  • nixon
    Free Member

    I’m looking to change out my current 26″ 32 hole Stans Alpines for a set of scandium alloy aluminium rims (for no better reason than “I think scandium sounds cool”) and am eyeing up the eThirteen TRS+ rims. Trouble is, the ERD for the Alpines is listed as 537/536mm and the TRS+ as 533mm. Is there any chance of this still being workable without changing spokes? The rest of the wheelset is Sapim CXRays and alloy nipples, and Superstar Superleggera Ti hubs. I was thinking that if the ends of the spokes ended up protruding from the rim a bit I could pack it out with more rim tape? I run tubeless.

    As you may well have fathomed from the previous paragraph, I’ve never even changed a spoke let alone built a wheel, so cheers for any help 🙂

    coolhandluke
    Free Member

    That’s only 1 and a 1/2mm difference then, I say go for it.

    Hopefully the spokes you have already are on the short side.

    Another way is to do a spoke length calc (DT Swiss web site has one) on both wheels and see what lengths come up.

    Regarding the build, Some people would tape the new rim to the old wheel and go spoke swapping. Personally, I’d deconstruct the wheel and then build.

    Buy Roger Munsons “wheel pro” PDF book is the standard answer too, only because it’s cheap, well written and a doddle to follow.

    DaveyBoyWonder
    Free Member

    Its ~2mm difference at the end of each spoke so ‘might’ be workable.

    I’ve swapped rims before but like for like and gone with the taping method and its pretty straightforward…

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    I might be slightly worried about the threaded bits on the spokes not being quite long enough and bottoming the nipples out before full tension is reached.

    Probably worth a try, though.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    If you can swap to longer nipples it’ll probably be an easy job. Might even work without depending on how they’re built currently tbh.

    crikey
    Free Member

    Alloy nipples?

    Nah…

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I just built a new wheel with alu nipples and already I’m looking at it thinking “you ****, why did you do that?”. A revolving door of owning alu nipples, discovering they’re shit, replacing them all, then forgetting, then owning alu nipples again.

    honourablegeorge
    Full Member

    Read a review of an E13 wheelset recently, they were less than impressed with the durability of the rims. Was on a GT Fury, I think, so maybe not the usage you’re intending, but they dented & flatted the rims very easily.

    eulach
    Full Member

    If there’s enough length on the butt of the spoke, is there any reason you couldn’t cut a bit more thread? I’m not sure if the time:cost thing would work out though.

    KonaOwner
    Free Member

    It’s quite easy to tape the rims and swap the spokes across one by one. Contrary to what has been said above, if you deconstruct the wheel, you shouldn’t re-use the existing spokes – they have to stay in their existing configuration as they have been subject to long-term stress in a particular twisted position, so re-using them in a different position would mean re-twisting them and could lead to snapping.

    As your spokes are 1.5-2.0mm too long, there could be a problem of strength. Again, contrary to what is said above, longer nipples would not help (they help only where your spokes are too short). Ideally you have 10mm of spoke thread engaged with 10mm of nipple thread, but if your spokes protrude by 2mm, you’re only going to have 8mm engaged and the join is going to be weaker. You might just get away with it, but I would guess that 80% is on the margin for how low you can safely go. I would take a look at the existing build – if the spokes are already protruding slightly, i.e., they are already slightly too long, then I wouldn’t go ahead with those spokes. If they look slightly too short now, then I think you could safely re-use them.

    zbonty
    Full Member

    Give it a go is probably the only way.

    Apart from the good advice above the other thing that could mess you up is the stated ERD.
    I have two rims here with wrongly stated ERD measurements…

    lilchris
    Free Member

    Be sure to wash between goes.
    HTH

    bikewhisperer
    Free Member

    I doubt it would work, unless you have 16 or 14mm nipples and can go down to 12.

    Have a look at the current spokes in the nipple head. If they’re up to the slot in the back then they won’t go enough further in and will bind.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Crap, yes, shorter nipples- got it the wrong way round 😳

    bikewhisperer
    Free Member

    Working out wheels makes my brain ache.. I usually end up with about half a page of crossed out numbers, and a nagging sense of self doubt.

    cynic-al
    Free Member

    Bar the experience of building a wheel, this sounds like a waste of time.

    If you do it, loosen all the spokes off 1-2 turns, first clean and lube threads (oil for longer spokes, grease for shorter).

    nixon
    Free Member

    Cheers for the advice peoples, I think my plan of action then is to look out for a set of the rims (pending me doing a bit more research into their durability, that’s not encouraging news honourablegeorge 🙁 ) secondhand (they’re a bit too pricy new) and if they crop up I’ll have a check to see if the spokes are on the short/long side (I’m reluctant to check now as it was a right pain to get the tyres to hold air). If they are a bit long, would it be possible to put a washer under each nipple so as to circumvent the problem of the spokes bottoming out in the nipples?

    The taping method sounds good, and I’ll look into getting a proper wheelbuilding guide.

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