LBS tells me my rear wheel was built incorrectly

[sepoy]

A few months ago I had a mavic cxp33/ ultegra hub wheel built by a store, and I recently noticed it has gone out of true. I took the wheel into a different store (closer to my home) and they told me that the spokes on the left side were the wrong length (the thread of every spoke on the left side extended out below the nipple).

Before I cart my bike back to the store that built it, I'd just like to confirm that the second store was indeed correct? The reason I ask is the store that built my wheel was supposed to have a good reputation for building, and I don't know much about the store I took it into today.

 

[Peter@vecchios]

A few months ago I had a mavic cxp33/ ultegra hub wheel built by a store, and I recently noticed it has gone out of true. I took the wheel into a different store (closer to my home) and they told me that the spokes on the left side were the wrong length (the thread of every spoke on the left side extended out below the nipple).

Before I cart my bike back to the store that built it, I'd just like to confirm that the second store was indeed correct? The reason I ask is the store that built my wheel was supposed to have a good reputation for building, and I don't know much about the store I took it into today.

Incorrect length for sure. If they didn't get the length right(pretty basic) then no telling what else they did 'wrong'.

A decent wheelbuilder will either get the correct lebngth or not build the wheel.

 

[sepoy]

Incorrect length for sure. If they didn't get the length right(pretty basic) then no telling what else they did 'wrong'.

A decent wheelbuilder will either get the correct lebngth or not build the wheel.

Thanks, pretty bloody hopeless that they'd do something like this.

 

[dabac]

A few months ago I had a mavic cxp33/ ultegra hub wheel built by a store, and I recently noticed it has gone out of true. I took the wheel into a different store (closer to my home) and they told me that the spokes on the left side were the wrong length (the thread of every spoke on the left side extended out below the nipple).

w/o knowing how much the spokes protrude it's impossible to say whether it's only a somewhat sloppy build, or a functionally compromised build.
Functionally speaking (in the short term) you're OK as long as the spoke can be brought up to tension before the nipples run out of threads, although if the initial build is too marginal it can be impossible to true the wheel at a later stage.

The ideal that wheelbuilders tend to aim for is to have the end of the spoke terminating somewhere between the bottom of the slot, and the head of the spoke.

Anything from a rushed job with limited inventory or some flaw in the spoke calculation, or simply picking spokes from the wrong bin can cause a wheel to be built with a less than ideal spoke length.

What I'd do is to unthread one nipple and pull a spoke from the rim. Then I'd put the nipple back on and see how much protrusion I can afford before running out of thread. Then I'd compare this to the protrusion I have in the wheel. If I'm close to bottoming out I'd take the wheel back. If I still have some mm for future trueing I might not bother, but simply chalk it up against the store.