Hi I want to get a wheel built but I can’t get my head around the spoke length calculators. Any advice on what length spokes I need would be much appreciated.

The Rim is a 29″ Stans Flow.
The Hub is a Hope XC.
And Im looking at a three cross.

Thanks

try the wheelpro calculator. Works for me.

If your not building it yourself just leave it to who ever is to sort out.
But second the wheel pro site very easy to use.

Stans site lists the erd of there rims either inthe specs or the FAQ.

I’d be surprised if a box of 295mm didn’t do the job. Calculators give the length to 0.2mm but in reality, there’s a couple of mm slack in there.

Thanks for that, so if I have done the right then;

Left Disc side = 289.6mm
Right = 292.3mm
Difference between both is 2.7mm so do you reckon I could get away with a box 290mm for each side????

Front or rear wheel?

I get:

Front L: 289.8 (I’d use 289 if available, but 290’s will be fine and 288’s will work at a push)
Front R: 292.8 (I’d use 292’s)

Rear L: 292.7 (I’d use 292’s)
Rear R: 291.5 (I’d use 291’s if available, 290’s will be OK, 292’s would be acceptable too)

Always, if possible, go slightly shorter on the spoke than recommended rather than slightly too long. But only up to a maximum of 2mm too short, no more.

Doh I thought I had given all information. Yes its a front wheel build. Thanks for your advice, cheers

The good thing is, worse case scenario, at least when you find you’ve got the wrong length spokes you’ll definitely know what size you DO need to order! 😳 👿 🙄

Oui I can do without your comments, please move along nothing to see here 😕

The good thing is, worse case scenario, at least when you find you’ve got the wrong length spokes you’ll definitely know what size you DO need to order!

+1

And always round down, especialy with butted spokes which stretch more, I’ve just bought some DT Revs (2-1.5mm) then read that some builders round down (i.e. to the lower size) and then round down again (so 2mm below the lower size) as they’re so stretchy!

On a wheel building note, anyone else use a tension meter, just trued some hastily built wheels that I used for some uplift riding in Spain and didn’t put much effort into building, and as a result came back looking the worse for wear after soem rocky abuse. 30min with a tension meter and they came out almost bang on (probably borderline with V’s but fine with disks), just took an average reading for each side then did a few laps of each side adding/removing a half/quater/eighth turn on each spoke untill they were all even. Certainly seemed easier than squeezing the spokes and guessing!

I always round up so if those numbers are right then. If the rims are heavily offset then rounding down is fine.
F: L289/R293
R: L293/R292

However the differene between the front L/R is larger than the rear L/R. It is normally the other way around. I never used that calculator, I used spokecalc downloaded from sheldon brown’s site. I have always found it spot on if you round up.

If you buy the spokes from CRC they send 14mm not 12mm nipples so you need to reduce spoke length accordingly.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh just when I thought I had got my answer. I now don’t know what to get 🙁

Sorry for the hijack but I’m looking to try building some wheels for myself, can anybody recommend me a good book to get me started, there’s one that’s often mentioned but I can’t remember which one it is 😳

Cheers 🙂

Ready to be corrected but I thought the 14mm and 12mm nipples had the actual thread at the same distance from the spoke. 14mm being the prefered nipple length for machine built wheels and some aero style rims I.e mavic cxp 33’s.

Read the sheldon brown guide, it’s free and worked for me. The only deviation from it that I’ve done is to buy a tension guage, £60 for the park one on CRC, just to take the guesswork out of it, especialy when building with Stans rims.

swavis

clicky

Can anybody recommend any online retailers known to be good for spoke prices

crc have always been best on dt swiss – they’ll only sell multiples of 36 but will vary spoke lengths within that.

Check out Rose bikes. There will be an additional £5 delivery but even with that taken into concideration i have always found them cheapest. They sell spokes in bundles of 20 and you need to buy nipples seperately which are sold in packs of 40.

If you are building your wheels then a nipple driver is an extreamly usefull tool to have. You can make one and instructions are in the wheelpro guide, I couldn’t be bothered and just bought onee, rose were way cheaper for the DT Swiss one than any one else when i got mine a few months back.

Thanks both – I just need to commit to spoke lengths now 🙄

I’ll ask again, front or rear wheel?

My first post, I worked out the required lengths for you, for both front and rear.

The 12mm Vs 14mm nipple thing, either will be fine. 14mm Nipples can be used as a “I’ve only got slightly shorter spokes than I need” get out clause, but generally its to aid with truing when used in deeper section rims, as often 12mm nipples don’t protrude enough to get a good hold on them.

Hi I did reply – front wheel 😥

Thanks for the earlier post.

So I’m shopping for 289mm & 292mm
Cheers

Sorry mate, my apologies, glossed over that one.

289’s or 290’s will be fine for the one side.

292 will be ideal for the other.

This might help…

No worries & thanks for the link. Cheers