Re using spokes – is it ever okay?

I have a pair of nice rim brake wheels that could do with new rims.

The spokes (DT) are still okay to my lay mind but …….

Would it be worth building with fresh spokes.

Rim dimensions are the same so I could get away with it ……. In theory.

its always easier building with new spokes, just because old ones will all be bent slightly differently, and you’re unlikely to put them into the new wheel in exactly the same order/position.

There are hassles of taking wheels apart with nipples corroding onto the spoke thread, and having to cut the spokes to take the wheel apart. It takes AGES to manually de-spoke a wheel!

new spokes! just so much easier 🙂

I have satisfactorily reused a set on the tandem – new rim required so taped the new rim alongside the old and moved the spokes over one at a time – a couple of years of use and its OK

Get some masking tape.
Apply masking tape to spokes to fix them in position.
Go round wheel with spoke key and undo nipples.
Transfer rimless spokes into new rim.
Put nipples back on.
True up.

I’ve re-rimmed a few wheels a few times & never had an issue.

Does take a while to do though undoing the old one.

I re-rimmed a set of wheels recently by doign the taping and relacing in place thing. The old rims had corroded 12mm alloy nipples and I’ve doen the new with 14mm brass ones as the new rim was slightly larger diameter. Been fine so far.

re-rimmed my commuter, nice and easy. Not sure I’d trust my wheel building skillz and old spokes in a more abusive application but certainly do-able.

new rim required so taped the new rim alongside the old and moved the spokes over one at a time

This

You’ll be fine. It can be worth replacing the nipples though.. Old DT ones can get creaky and brittle. Sapim ones can build nicer.

Done it loads without issue [ 3 of my 6 wheels are reused spokes] and without the matching spoke to location – its a wheel all spokes should be at the same tension and length why would that matter? [ ignoring drive non drive]

IIRC Wheel pro book says it is OK

So long as the spokes haven’t been run loose then reusing is fine – I’d go as far as to say that it’d be silly not to.

Yep – you can reuse spokes but you need to be very carful to ensure that you don’t mix up the driveside/non driveside spokes as they can be different lengths on the rear wheel.

+1 for using new nipples, this will save you a lot of hassle and you can buy them in bulk for not much cash.

Yeah works fine, may be an idea to replace nipples but they are often fine.

I’ve found no difference in longevity from Sapim to DT…and I prefer the latter.

Re-rimmed a few times, taping the rims together and swapping spokes over.

The issue’s more likely to be them being the wrong length, if you’re changing rim type.

I just take them all out and put them carefully into 4 piles,

1. non driveside outside spokes
2. non driveside inside spokes
3. driveside outside spokes
4. driveside inside spokes

that way you have time to give them all a good clean and then when you re-lace, the bend in the spoke will be in the same place/direction as on the old wheel.

I’ve re-used spokes before just changed the nipples

Done it loads of times, only replacing a few busted nipples, and its been fine.

I am currently running a rear wheel that is a charity hub off a mate with an old mavic rim of mine laced together with spokes liberated from a wheel off an Apollo I got off freecycle.

Still in one piece so far