On 2007-07-11, Jeremy Parker <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> "Paul Boyd" <[email protected]> wrote
>
> [snip]
>
>> So, has anyone taken the plunge and built a wheel that was a
>> success first time round? Experienced wheel-builders seem to knock
>> them out for a past-time (but unless you're doing it professionally
>> why do you need to keep building wheels?), but I'd like to hear
>> from people who might have just built one or two without any
>> problems
>
[...]
> There is, or at least was, a book, "Sutherland's Handbook for Cycle
> Mechanics" which has tables of spoke lengths needed for different
> makes of hub and rim. The book has got thicker, and more expensive,
> over the years, but I imagine bike shops would have a copy, or some
> equivalent.
There are lots of online calculators (I think Simon Brooke just posted
links to several). The formula itself is not too complicated, it's on
Wikipedia.
[...]
> If you have to dish the wheel, as you will for a back wheel, then the
> spokes on the two sides will be of slightly different lengths, not
> enough to need to buy two kinds of spoke, but enough to get two
> different numbers for your spoke thread counts.
For my rear wheel (9 speed, 700c) there was a difference in 2mm between
the two sides. I think that's quite a lot and I did get 16 spokes each
of the two lengths.
Perhaps it would have been OK anyway, especially as the rim is
box-section so there's quite a way to go before the spokes are sticking
up into the inner tube zone.
[...]
> The reason for de-stressing is that when you screw a nipple onto a
> spoke, screwing the nipple twists the spoke rather, winding the spoke
> up like a spring. If you leave the spoke wound up, it will gradually
> try to unwind itself, thereby unscrewing itself from the spoke
> nipple, and messing up the trueness of the wheel, after some miles of
> riding.
I think that's probably most of what's going on. There's a lot of talk
on RBT about stress-relief however, based on the idea that the spokes
may contain residual stresses either from manufacture or from the slight
extra bend introduced in the elbow during the build, that may accelerate
fatigue as the spokes are used causing them to break. These stresses it
is said can be ironed out of the steel by the momentary overload caused
by leaning on the rim as you describe.