On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 00:39:01 +0200, Ivar Hesselager wrote:

After having to give up on the third mountain in the Ötztaler Radmarathon
two weeks ago, I realized I had to loose a lot of weigh before my next
attempt.So I bought new very slim spokes ( 2.0-1.5-2.0 mm) to replace the
plain gauge (2.0) that the bike shop had put in, because they considered
me a heavy rider . i.e. 86 kg = 187 lbs.

I _wish_ that were my weight.

But Jobst Brandt's great book on
wheels has told me, that heavy riders don't need heavy spokes - just very
tight spokes and strong rims. So that's what I got. The weight saved on
the two wheels is 368 g.- and the price for the spokes & nipples is
exactly 50 US $. This gives a price per saved kg of 136 $.

How do you compute that weight saving? Did you have steel rims
previously? That is a huge difference for just changing spokes.

OTOH, I don't see the advantage of using straight-gauge spokes. I claim
there is no advantage in overall strength between staight-gauge and butted
spokes. Conversely, I*would not use 2/1.5/2mm spokes, since that center
section would be a RPITA in terms of wind-up. A more conservative 2/1.8/2
or 1.8/1.6/1.8 would give a more resiliant, and thus stronger wheel,
without making it impossible to build.

So saving weight by putting in butted
spokes IS good value for money.

No way are you saving 368 grams by switching spokes. For even 36-spoke
wheels, that is supposedly a nearly 10g/spoke saving. DT reports that its
1.8/1.6/1.8 spokes weigh 311g for 64, and the 2.0/1.8/2.0 weigh 382g/64.
Plain 2.0 weigh 444g/64. So, the difference between lighter than
yours and the heaviest spokes in general use, is less than 150g.

At that prise, I would rather do the hard work or suffer the privations
needed to loose 7 kg of body weight and keeping it down.

You're fussing about grams, versus dropping 7kg for "free". You know what
is the best bet.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Some people used to claim that, if enough monkeys sat in front
_`\(,_ | of enough typewriters and typed long enough, eventually one of
(_)/ (_) | them would reproduce the collected works of Shakespeare. The
internet has proven this not to be the case.