How To Measure Spoke length

Præthön said:

I am restoring an old 1980's Peugeot touring bike. A couple of the spokes
have broken on the rear wheel so I need to replace them. However I have
never done this before and am unsure how to actually obtain an accurate
spoke length. A quick Google search threw up a few differing methods. Can
any of you wheel builders out there provide some advice to a novice please.
Am I right in thinking it is millimeter critical?

Within about 3mm should be OK.

Easiest is measure one of the spokes you've got-- take out one of the
ones that isn't broken, bend it straight, and measure it from the elbow
bend all the way to the end. Or just measure the broken one.

Remember spokes on the back wheel are usually different lengths on the
left and right side, so measure a spoke from the correct side.

Præthön said:

I am restoring an old 1980's Peugeot touring bike. A couple of the spokes
have broken on the rear wheel so I need to replace them. However I have
never done this before and am unsure how to actually obtain an accurate
spoke length. A quick Google search threw up a few differing methods. Can
any of you wheel builders out there provide some advice to a novice please.
Am I right in thinking it is millimeter critical?

Cheers

Stuart

The usual method as I understand it is to use the distance from the
inide of the elbow to the end of the spoke.
If you look at the amount of thread protruding (preferably none) or the
distance from the end of the spoke to the end of the nipple on the
surviving spokes then you'll get an idea of how much tolerance there is.
if they've all been ground off then I'd go a size down. It would
probably do no harm to remove one of the survivors (from the same side)
and take it into the shop where you should be able to compare them.
It may well be worth checking for damage at the hub end on the other
spokes sice the chain may well have been dumped into them at some point.

Roger Thorpe

Thanks for the replies. I managed to measure it with a Park Tools spoke
ruler at my LBS. I had measured it at 295mm and the ruler had it at 296mm,
so pretty close.

In article <[email hidden]>,
"Præthön" <praethonatnerdshackdotcom> says...

Quoted message said:

I am restoring an old 1980's Peugeot touring bike. A couple of the spokes
have broken on the rear wheel so I need to replace them. However I have
never done this before and am unsure how to actually obtain an accurate
spoke length. A quick Google search threw up a few differing methods. Can
any of you wheel builders out there provide some advice to a novice please.

Take out a good one, hook the elbow over the end of a 12 inch steel
rule, read off the length. :-) Note the drive side spokes will be a
couple of mm shorter than the slack side. Also be aware you may come to
true the wheel after replacing a few spokes only to find that others are
so seized that they'll break rsther than turn.

Quoted message said:

Am I right in thinking it is millimeter critical?

Pretty much - too short and you risk stripping the thread in the nipple,
too long and there may not be enough thread on the spoke to tighten it
fully (plus it's a pain having to grind down protruding spoke ends).
Ideally the spoke end should be flush with the bottom of the slot in the
nipple when it's properly tensioned.