Forum menu
Managed to bend a rear spoke at the weekend - rear wheel, DT Swiss M1900 (30mm wide). The spokes are straight pull and the DT website states the right hand spokes = 303mm and left = 306mm. All the websites selling "DT Champion straight pull" only sell 302mm, or 304mm. Any recommendations here ? I assume the right hand referrers to the freehub side (righthand when looking from above).
Also; when changing out a broken spoke can you carefully cut a small incision through the rim tape behind the spoke, replace and glue over a layer of rim tape? (as opposed to removing the full circumference )
Personally I'd go slightly over with the 304mm.
You shouldn't need to put a hole in the rim tape (or even remove the tyre), just remove the old spoke and make sure the new one is seated and routed properly and then tighten up with a spoke key.
Yep, you often need to cut the tape if the spoke has broken since they tend to go at the nipple, and doing a little patch like this works fine (though can be a bit less reliable especially when changing tyres). But with a bent one you can usually extract the spoke and then fit a new one straight into the old nipple, just be careful not to let it escape into the rim!
And yep +1 for going +1mm (sorry couldn't help it)
if it's just bent. simply straighten out the bent section and re-tension it
remember straight pull spokes need to be held while you turn the nipples to tension (spoke holding pliers are what you'd want if you're doing it regularly but a pair of pliers will do if it's just a one off)
Even with J bend I’ve managed to replace spokes without damaging the tape. Keep the spoke you’re replacing at the top, so gravity is helping A bit of blu tac or a small zip tie is also useful to stop it disappearing into the rim cavity forever.
What you need is a nipple grab! (stop laughing at the back!)
Whack that on, nip it up, remove spoke then stick new spoke in and tension up. That one sits in my guiding bag.
I did one of these recently. I had to de-tension one side of the wheel and remove a spoke or two in order to swap the spoke over. Bit of a pain.
I can confirm the disc side was 306mm. As mentioned, if it’s the drive side I’d go for a 304mm.
I got the spoke on eBay here.
straight pull spokes need to be held while you turn the nipples to tension
Ideally all spokes should be clamped near the nipple when working on them. J-bend spokes will twist coil up if the nipple is particularly stuff (ooo er missus).
What you need is a nipple grab!
Oooo want, but I'm a bit scared to google it.
This place had all the obscure DT spokes I needed
https://slam69.co.uk/search?q=dt+swiss+spoke&options%5Bprefix%5D=last