Sorry to ask what I can only assume has been asked several times already but….

I’m going to attempt a wheel build for the first time. I have a Pro 2 Evo rear hub and Mavic EN521 rim both 36 hole. I’ve looked at various spoke calculators and I’m slightly confused by the info they have given.

These are the lenghts from prowheelbuilder.com

Left spoke length: 255.5

Right spoke length: 254.9

I’m looking at DT swiss spokes and they don’t come in these lenghts. So, should I size up or down (254mm or 256mm)?

Thanks
Matt

Go up a bit, but in reality it doesn’t matter.

Flip a coin. IME the calcs are always a bit out and I end up having to rebuild the wheel anyway with longer or shorter spokes.

IME the calcs are always a bit out and I end up having to rebuild the wheel anyway with longer or shorter spokes.

not my experience. i have used spocalc FWIW. its a spreadsheet so you’ll need xcel or openoffice or something to use it.
for balance flipping a coin on those numbers isn’t a bad shout though. just round to the nearest.

My calculation confirms them at 255mm too. Always a lottery about whether to round up or down to the nearest available length though,1mm won’t make a huge difference either way, but i’d probably go for 254mm, purely based on personal preference.

I’d recommend getting the wheelpro book, and following the advice there, which in this case is to prefer to round down, but don’t go more than 1mm from the ideal length. So, if you can’t get 255, 254.9 => 254 and 255.5 => 256. But best to make sure that you’re using the same approach for measuring the ERD.

255mm spokes can be gotten I think DT and ACI do sell them, Sapim probably do as well.

best to google about a bit…

DT wheel calculator has always worked OK for me, I’ll round up or down to whichever is nearest.

best to google about a bit…

whilst on the subject…someone recommended me an online spoke retailer, pretty cheap too for dt comps/revs, can’t remember where it was, think it was a UK shop, wasn’t one for the usual outlets tho. Can’t find a link or receipt/confirmation email, any ideas?
think “black” may have been in the shop name, not sure tho.

I found rose bikes to be the cheapest.

255mm spokes can be gotten I think DT and ACI do sell them, Sapim probably do as well.

I can cut you some if you really like – have a new ultra-modern spoke making machine 😉

Off to make some 146mm spokes now…

Thanks folk – I appreciate all your advice. Dare I ask which nipples you’d recommend I use? Or can I reuse the original brass nipples I already have?

Spokes will come with nipples.I never re-use nipples, its just not worth it.

Spokes WILL NOT come with nipples if you buy from rose bikes.

I generally go for new nipples as often I do not know the length of the nipple used previously and as nipple length can affect spoke length I just get the size of nipple best suited to the spoke calculation.

I always round down, because the spoke calculators don’t allow for stretch in the spokes which can be quite significant especially with thinner spokes. If you round up you can risk running out of thread if you want to use high spoke tension with something like Revs. Usually though it doesn’t matter that much.

New to you, as I thought you were buying in custom length spokes when I was trying to get one?

New to you, as I thought you were buying in custom length spokes when I was trying to get one?

Yes, used to get custom spokes from Central Wheel, but they stopped making them in 14G. Got a bunch from Dylan (www.yourspokes.co.uk) which were very good. And used to go out to Wheelcraft to use Al’s machine, which is great but takes half a day.

Now with this setup I can make a set in 15 minutes.