On 3/14/2019 11:59 AM, Mark J. wrote:
On 3/13/2019 4:36 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 13 Mar 2019 16:07:48 -0700, "Mark J."

wrote:

On 3/13/2019 3:40 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 13 Mar 2019 13:54:18 -0700 (PDT), Sir Ridesalot
wrote:

On Wednesday, March 13, 2019 at 3:17:05 PM UTC-4, AMuzi
wrote:
Snipped

I don't get the obsession of reusing spokes. If that
turns
you on, fine.
IMHO 'best rim for this rider/usage' can be severely
limited
by adding 'within poorly supported ERD'.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971

I don't think it's an obsession to use the old spokes.
I think it's because many of us just like to tape the
new rim to the old rim and then move the spokes to the
new rim without having to unlace t he old wheel. Plus
it saves a fair bit of money. Where I am shops cut
spokes to length and t hen thread them. My
understanding is that those cut threads make a weaker
spoke than do spokes with rolled threads.

I have a couple of extra wheels here that have tubular
rims on t hem but the hubs and spokes are in excellent
condition. If I could get a clincher rim to match the
tubular rim so I could use the old spokes by taping the
new rim to the old and transferring the spokes to the
new rim I would.

YMMV

Cheers

I see 14 gauge spokes with nipples listed on Amazon for
$0.10 each in
lots of 36.

Please point me there! The lowest I can find on Amazon
are ~$0.27 (US)
each. I looked on Ebay and couldn't get anywhere near
that price point.
If they look reliable I'll use them to build wheels at
a local
non-profit / pro-bono community bike shop.

Mark J.

I couldn't find the site I originally quoted :-(
But there were a number of sites offering spokes in sets
of 36 for
$10.00 or less. Given that the TREK bikes I see listed
range from
$11,799, with disc's, to $849, with conventional brakes, a
measly ten
bucks is chicken feed.

For high-end Treks, sure. For functional recycled utility
bikes that will be sold on a sliding scale or given away,
not so much.

The shop is sitting on a bunch of new donated rims, and it
harvests hubs, many decent ones, from otherwise dead donated
wheels. My goal is to turn those resources into working
wheels through donated labor. Put it all together, and it's
marginally competitive with complete wholesale wheels due to
the cost of spokes. (And it's a fair question whether wheel
building is an efficient use of donated skilled time.)

My conjecture is that the rise of the boxed-wheels market
has raised the price of spokes dramatically, as spokes' drop
in wholesale/retail volume requires a much higher price to
be worth stocking. I remember getting basic but name-brand
spokes for 20 cents each, now it's closer to a dollar.

Andy M., did I guess right about the market?

Mark J.


I don't know.

We gave up on domestic premium spoke support[1] and just
import them ourselves so I'm not in the market here much
except for unusual items.

Premium 18/8 butted NJS cert spokes are $30/set here with DT
Swiss nipples. Your average replacement wheel[2] runs $40 to
$60 but almost all with UCP SG spokes.

[1]unreliable/slow delivery. Faster from Osaka than from
Milwaukee or Olney.
[2]assembled in USA from imported components

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971