Just got a quote to build up a set of Hope Pro 3 hubs onto some Mavic touring rims.
Shop quoted £68 for DT DB silver spokes with brass nipples. £35 for building.
I've had a lot of handbuilt wheels but never broken down the costs. I had no idea spokes were that price.
yep, its about 70-90p a spoke. Are they straight pull hubs, might be even more expensive if so.
building a wheel for a friend now and he paid £15 for the 32 spokes. I thought that was a bit steep.
Yep, was mortified about the cost of spokes.
cheapest place for psokes currently seems to be CRC - they haven't (yet) passed on the dt swiss price rises.
Depends on the age of stock. We have mixed stock at various prices. It;s annoying.
BW used to charge 35p each for those, but they have gone up.
CRC charging £15 for 36 spokes.
BTW - 34 spoke wheels?
About £1.20 each at RRP these days...
Which considering the DT comp is the same product as it was about 10 years ago when I worked in the trade, and the RRP was about 35 pence each, I find quite insulting!
Still, it's the way of the world though these days...
And to be fair, most shops would charge you £35 for EACH wheel for a build... Though if they were doing that, they often heavily discount spokes in my experience. They have to make a living to get by on though, worth remembering...
Or of course get the likes of Merlin Cycles, or Chain Reaction to give you a quote... Both seem to build very good wheels, often selling them for less than the individual component costs of the parts that make up the wheel!
Spokes have gone up in price massively. You can thank the currencies as they are, nothing working for people buying stuff imported into Britain from Europe - as I'm sure you're aware. £68 sounds par for the course for 64/72 spokes.
Obviously you can find the odd deal on the internet on old stock.
I got charged £35 for building recently (I laced them, all they needed to do was tension and true) and neither wheel was dished correctly, should have just bought a stand and done it myself.
Too long typing my reply...
These are ordinary spokes, nothing fancy, not staight pull types. 36h rear - 32h front.
RRP on DT Competitions in silver is 75p each.
In the last 10 years the price of almost everything has gone up MB. I renmember a packet of Polos being 10p.
Is there really any advantage of DB spokes over plain guage on a touring wheel?
You can pick up Sapim spokes (arguably just as good as DT) for a lot less, i just got 36 Sapim Race (DB) from SPA Cycles for £15.
At least you don't want white spokes. DT Swiss DB are £2.50 each RRP!
Steel isn’t cheap stuff, Stainless even more so, CRCs – Plain Gauge and DB prices are about as cheap as you’re going to get spokes, as a customer, outside of the trade I’d have thought…
Everything else has gone up in price, why not spokes?
Pete - the wheels I did for you OK?
PG may be a little stiffer but the idea is that DB "stretch" in the middle and so won't break at the elbow like PG.
Not sure if this stacks up in the real world.
Prices are **** nuts, steel IS cheap at the moment, stainless is a lot more pricey but even so, weight for weight it's insane. I recently bought a 500mm x 120mm cylinder of mild steel for something in work, £40. Obviously stainless is more, and to have it formed is more again, but stainless steel cutlery is significantly more massive and just as intricately formed, but you can buy sets for a tenner. Supply and demand is the only reasoning.
Try Hardies in Cairneyhill, Craig builds a good wheel and uses Sapin spokes.
Al, they've been really good. I'm going to take that bike to the US in Sept and do some bob trailer touring with them. Fitted with 35mm tyres I should be able to ride fire roads and stuff too.
Sounds like they're charging you their single spoke price. Which is normal in some shops, but does make their wheels very expensive compared to building using spokes you buy yourself in multi-packs.
Are they all a similar spoke length, so they can just use one box of spokes, or are there 2 different lengths?
Would they build up with spokes you provide - you could pick up the right length db stainless spokes (Sapim for sure, probably DT) for about £30 if you bought them yourself.
Joe
As STATO said - Sapim spokes from Spa Cycles
I got 70 Sapim Race DB in silver inc. brass nipples for £31 delivered.
If you're rebuilding a wheel of uncertain parentage (ie bought it second-hand) to put a new rim on it, is the collective view that you can re-use the spokes or is it a new set at each re-build (assuming they fit)?
reuse spokes is fine unless they're too marked from chain coming off cassette.
Everything else has gone up in price
my lbs (high peak cycles glossop) charged me £25 for build and spokes(pair) their robbing you 
So, the shop expects to take the spokes, then double that price to achieve an RRP for the spokes, then charge labour for the build on top of that as well...
I can imagine if my local garage tried to pull that off... wouldn't get a lot of business!
parts & labour plus vat, should be the same with bike shops!
Aye,
When I've built a wheel I generally get ACI DB spokes from cyclebasket.com.
Can't complain for 30p a spoke, although it's worth waiting till you need a fair amount as they charge a flat £6 for postage. Very cheap on a lot of good stuff though.
EDIT: or a box of 144 for £26.60! Wow.
Si C
ononeorange - Member
If you're rebuilding a wheel of uncertain parentage (ie bought it second-hand) to put a new rim on it, is the collective view that you can re-use the spokes or is it a new set at each re-build (assuming they fit)?
Re-use is fine.
last spokes I bought were £28 for a box of 100 sapim race db , from outspoken cycles but that was about 18 months ago. Looks like they only stock ACI spoke now http://www.outspokencycles.co.uk/wheelbuilding-accessories.html
Thanks
pitduck - Member
my lbs (high peak cycles glossop) charged me £25 for build and spokes(pair) their robbing you
Someone is undervaluing their skills as a wheel builder there. That is a ridiculously low price.
i've been building the occsaional wheel with ACI spokes from cyclebasket for the last 10 years and never had a problem with them.
i had two wheels built by a bike shop in redhill for 60 quid including spokes but that was a few years back now.
i used this guide http://www.sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html and trued them using a zip tie on the stays!
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