Topic: Spokes

[Magilla]

Anyone know of a place in central New England that relaces wheels?  My spokes are terrible.  Also what is the cost for this job?  Everything I do is on a budget.

[fishslayeryo]

You could buy the spokes yourself and repoke your wheels and take them in to get trued. Just did this on both front and rear wheel....looks tons better. There's a good write on how to spoke them on here if you are interested. Seen front and rear spokes for about 70-120, which includes nipples(hehe i said nipples)

[nayto550]

You could buy the spokes yourself and repoke your wheels and take them in to get trued. Just did this on both front and rear wheel....looks tons better. There's a good write on how to spoke them on here if you are interested. Seen front and rear spokes for about 70-120, which includes nipples(hehe i said nipples)

Or if you want to go really crazy with your money-saving endeavor, a truing stand can be bought for less than the cost of having a shop true a wheel.  Then again, if you've never done it before and have no one to show you how to do it, it can get extremely frustrating very fast.

[Magilla]

I’ve never done it before and have no issue doing the re-spoke myself.  I’m sure I can figure it out.  I would then just need to find a shop that can true it.  I am certain I don’t have the patients to do that.
As for looking up the “how to post” in this forum?  I can’t ever seem to get the search to work.  It always comes back blank.  I’m sure that sometimes it’s my own fault for not being able to spell or type.  I should have paid more attention in school!!

[LesterPiglet]

Hehe, patience. The search is broken.

[fishslayeryo]

Here's the instructions I used:
http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=101954.0
Several vendors from fleabay sells front and rear spokes.
Cheapest here if you don't want stainless...didn't use these, but read no issues from ppl who have used them:
http://www.vintagecb750.com/products/2/chassis-brakes/61/wheel-spokes

Good luck!

[70CB750]

I made my own wrench, being the cheapskate, using old broken wrench and grinding a grove in it for the nipple ( - I said nipple too:))

[fishslayeryo]

Nice idea on the nipple wrench! When i worked on my new spokes I had 80 nipples on my floor...didn't know what to do with myself

[Gman]

Is it just me, or does anybody else cringe when somebody talks about putting a wrench to a nipple?   


Cheers,
G

[nancy]

Magilla,
I went down this path last year - bought new stainless spokes from David Silver in UK for about 40 of your bucks...and fitted myself - 1st timer also. It is not hard but does get frustrating. WHEN (not if) it does get frustrating - go away and do something else and come back. Take pics of your wheel before - showing spoke layout, position of tube valve and wheel balance weights. Mark your tyre with a dab of paint to show where it relates to the rim before removal. Cut your spoke off with cutters or whatever - watch it - they can go zinggg!
Be prepared to find rust on the inside rim. Treat it well - I used electrolysis system overnight. I got my rim rechromed..which cost me another 100...and then painted the inside rim with rust preventer layers.
I rigged up my own wheel trueing jig - 2 bench vices to support upright bars - each bar fitted with a plastic elbow from an old outdoor picnic chair - the hole diameter was exactly what the front wheel axle wanted. I reused the balance weights that were on the wheel originally - luckily.
Lots and lots of very small spoke adjustments over 4 or 5 evenings till I got the sideways movement to well inside a mm. I used a nail clamped to the upright..but later bought a dial gauge to finish it off...but you can get by without that.
I was quoted about 50 for a single wheel true by a pro. So spent the 50 and got my dial gauge.
Regards
Mark

[nayto550]

Anyone know of a place in central New England that relaces wheels?  My spokes are terrible.  Also what is the cost for this job?  Everything I do is on a budget.

Back to the original question (it seems we got side-tracked).  Almost any motorcycle shop can lace and true a wheel, costs around $50-80 per wheel, depending on the shop.

Take pics of your wheel before - showing spoke layout, position of tube valve and wheel balance weights. Mark your tyre with a dab of paint to show where it relates to the rim before removal.

Having good pictures of the spoke pattern is important.  Position of the rim and balance weights in relation to the hub is not really important as the wheel must be rebalanced after such a repair.

[Magilla]

When re spoking why would you not;

Remove a spoke
Replace the spoke
Remove a spoke
Replace a spoke
And so on?

It seems logical but based on what I am reading, no one does it so there must be a reason why.

[grcamna2]

When buying spokes..try to purchase the correct gauge spokes to correctly fit into the size holes in your hubs.They are selling lot's of generic low quality spokes on Ebay that aren't the correct gauge size and you'll end up breaking them and having to respoke your entire wheel over again.I like the O.E. spokes best because they are butted sizes that fit well in the hubs.There are other spoke manufacturers...;when you do get some of them, specify the correct gauge size holes in your hub to match the spokes you order from them.I wouldn't get any that are smaller than the O.E. gauge size for safety reasons.

To answer your last question,folks always start from the beginning to respoke the entire wheel w/ fresh spokes..,if you do one at a time you would have to bend each spoke which would weaken it a little.