Advice on replacing spokes myself?

turboprannet writes:

freebsd_frank - thanks for the wheelpro link, I ignored Gerd Schraners soldering suggestion but felt most of the book was a good start.

I'll check wheelpro out.

Yes do and I do very much recommend the book for anybody repairing/building
wheels. Roger Musson's book is also clearer IMO.

I do think a tension meter is a sound investment though. It's possible to build a perfectly true and dished wheel that is too slack or tense, either of which carries risks.

I can see the benefits maybe for a professional wheelbuilder, largely for
repeatability purposes but people have and do successfully build wheels
without one. When I first bought his book and built my first set of wheels
c1997, he didn't mention the use of a tensiometer.

It's worth reading what Roger Musson has to say about the matter:

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/support/tensiometers/

He mentions there that Mavic and DT specify very different spoke tensions
for their respectively similar rims: similar section, similar material etc.
I suspect in practice that there is a fairly wide range of values for tension
of spokes that is acceptable for any specific rim.

bikerbobbbb writes:

I carry potentially up to 250 pounds on my bike. That's the limit for the specs on the bike I believe. Over time, spokes wear out. I upgraded the rear wheel becuse of that and the spokes wear out a lot less often.

Spokes shouldn't "wear out" in a properly built wheel in normal usage. As long
as you don't go
down a pothole or subject the wheel to loads in excess of that for which it is
designed. Spokes are made from stainless steel and won't fatigue fail if
properly used ie. the stresses are kept below a certain threshold.

Shimano Rear hub, Fh-2200 36H Silver

Almost certainly has 2.5mm holes, although I'd check on Shimano's site. 2.5mm
holes are fine for 2mm spokes.

Upgraded rear wheel:
mavic wheel cx 7 22

Do you mean wheel or rim? Check the label on the rim, that doesn't look
correct.

If it's a 36h touring rim on the Shimano hub you mentioned it should be strong
enough.

I'm currently building a 32h DT RR440 rim back wheel and it's rated for
an all-up weight of 120kg (ie. over 250lbs even though it's got less spokes
than your wheel and is a low section light racing rim).

Spoke BrandStainless, 14ga. (2.0mm) Spoke
NipplesUnspecified

If I were you I'd rebuild your back wheel with the correct length double
butted spokes from a more reputable manufacturer: DT Swiss or Sapim. Use DT
Competitions or Sapim Race and brass nipples. You'll probably use 12mm nipples
unless your rim is deep section which it probably isn't.

Buy Roger Musson's book available at:

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/

It will cost you 9 quid but Gerd Schraners book is out of date and wrong in
places eg. he believes in tying and soldering spokes and his method for
stress-relieving spokes will damage hubs with cartridge bearings. Roger's
book is kept
up-to-date (you get the updates free once you've bought it), it will save
you more than that in tools and Roger will answer any
questions you may have.

To remove the cassette, you'll need a chain whip (there's not much to them, so
I'd get a cheap one), a tool to remove your cassette lock ring (it's circular
with splines on it. Make sure you get a Shimano compatible one) and a largish
shifting spanner.

Cassette lock ring tool:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/park-tool-cassette-lockring-tool-fr5/...

You'll also need a spoke wrench. I like the Park one:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/park-tool-spoke-wrench-sw/rp-prod17510

Get a black one for the European spokes you're going to use.

Wheel rim tape -- I need to buy more of that and retape the whole wheel?

That depends if you've got stick on tape (like Velox) or polymer rim tape
which usually isn't stuck on. If it's stick on, you'll have to buy new.
Measure between the walls of the rim or the width of the old tape to order up
the right width.

I have a double walled wheel. Do I need a nipple tool?

No. You can get away with using an appropriate screwdriver; it just takes a
bit longer to lace up the wheel. Hopefully, your rim has double eyelets. This
makes building the wheel easier as you can't lose the nipples in the rim!

Spokes? I saw I'll need to figure out the measurements. I've got the broken ones and the rest are still on the wheel. Could I just measure those to avoid lots of calculations?

I wouldn't measure the lengths of the spokes. For one, it's not that easy
because of the elbow and secondly, they could be the wrong length. You can get
spokes in packets of 18 at Chain Reaction. You'll need two packs, each of
differing lengths for drive and non-drive side. BTW, it doesn't matter if you
eg. use Sapim Races one side and DT Competitions the other. Just buy the right
length depending on price/availability. Also, there's no functional difference
between black spokes and silver spokes, it's just fashion. Silver spokes are
cheaper.

The dimensions of your hub: I prefer to measure with
spring dividers and steel rule rather than get them somewhere off the 'net.
You also need to measure the ERD (effective rim diameter) of your rim. How to
do this is all mentioned in Musson's book.

Once you've done that you can just plug the numbers into the wheelpro
calculator to calculate the spoke lengths needed. His calculator knocks off
0.3mm off the length calculated strictly by the trig equation, as he finds
this works out better in practice.

Spoke/nipple grease?

Some motor oil or three-in-one will do.

BTW, you don't need a dishing tool (just swap the wheel round in your jig
instead) but Musson's book shows you how to make one from cardboard.

Spoke tension measuring tool?

You don't need one. You'll find that if you calculated the spoke lengths
correctly, the spoke will be near correctly tensioned when: the spoke is at or
near to the head of the nipple; the spokes start to wind-up more as the
frictional forces between spoke and nipple become greater due to the
increased tension in the spoke; the rim starts to go out of shape with small
part-rotations of the nipple(s). You can also pluck the spokes to find any loose
spokes and to compare tensions with a known good similar wheel.

If you don't build with enough tension in the spokes, you'll find that after
riding it for a bit it will go out of true. Then it's time to stick the wheel
back in the trueing jig and get out your spoke wrench and put a bit more
tension into the spokes.

In practice, I've found that even my first set of wheels that I built using
Roger Musson's method never went out of true or broke spokes.

If you're worried about the tension in your spokes, you could always try and
borrow a tensiometer from your LBS if you're a regular there.

The cost of the tools you need (since you've already got a truing jig)
probably wont be paid back the first time you use them, but after that if you
use them again you will save yourself money and be confident in the knowledge
that you've done the job properly. I also find it enjoyable.

Best of luck!