Was thinking about buying a stans flow ex wheel set.
What are the advantages of the SP option and is it worth the extra expense.

Thanks in advance,

Hi Chip

I am no expert, but would guess that the lack of elbow (the bit where the spoke bends through the hole in the hub with a “pip” at the end may make them stronger.

I have just bought some shimano road wheels with straight pull spokes on this basis as the old wheels were pinging spokes frequently at that point –

I am sure someone more knowledgeable will be along in a minute to say that I am wrong!

HTH

That’s the supposed advantage. In reality they’re a pain to true, spares are hard to come by (although Hope carry spares for their wheels, so less of an issue at home) and they offer little real world advantage! It’s a no from me.

My shimano RS10 and RS30 wheelsets both break at the nipple all the time and it takes about a week and a half on average to get spares in.

they spin around in the hub when you try and true them.

I’m not going that way again thats for sure.

I’m a heavy rider though so do put them through the ringer a bit.

Advantage:
I got a cheap SP stans flow wheelset as no one would buy. Got spare spokes online and carry them as spares in my handlebars.

Disadvantage: none

No performance advantage imo, potentially fiddly, and spares availability is crap. But Hope gets round the worst of that as they carry spokes for their models and they supply spares with the wheels. It’s still pretty pointless though, I wish my straightpull wheels weren’t.

Still, if you later decide to rebuild the hub onto a different rim you may struggle for choice and even availability.

I had a set of sp wheels that got seized by winter salt. It was an absolute nightmare to get the spokes out as they just rotated in the hub. I had to burn one out of the hub as it seized solid and there is still one locked in the front hub but I really can’t be bothered with it as I’m not going down that road again. So buy them if you only ever ride in the summer.

After having straight pull spokes on two wheel sets I’d not have them again as they are a real pain to tru.
Nothing wrong with J pull spokes 🙂 they do what they need to do and are available in different flavours should you need to replace any.

Thanks,
standard non sp wheel set ordered.

Got some Mavic crossrides, no problems whats so ever.

I have come to the conclusion that straight pull spokes solves a problem that really does not exist. J Bend are easy to build with, easy to buy and build a reliable wheel. Straight pull aren’t.

only advantage i know of is SP hubs look ace

Mavic straight pulls are a little different. They are held into the hub so they don’t twist white truing.
Other than that they are the same as other straight pull spokes – ie hard to find and expensive then they go twang, in comparison with j pulls.

Having said that , I do like my mavic SLR’s.

Some balance.

Field replacement of a spoke is somewhat easier with straightpull as you don’t have to remove the disc.

Building a wheel is easy as long as you hold the spoke near the nipple when tightening the nipple (pliers with tape to not mark the spoke).

No windup when building / truing is an advantage. Spoke windup is a big problem for proper wheel building and spoke longevity. Simply relying on the J of a J bend spoke to hold against the rotation of the spoke is not good. Not knowing how much windup you have in a spoke is not good.

Stronger and stiffer (what percentage I dunno).

nikk – Member

Field replacement of a spoke is somewhat easier with straightpull as you don’t have to remove the disc.

Sometimes. Or, sometimes it’s harder as you need to untension the adjacent spoke to get it out.