Spoke trimming advice

ishaw · Sep 12, 2015

I've built myself some wheels and they've turned out really well. A couple of the spokes however have turned out to be longer than the rest and sit higher out of the end of the nipple inside the rim. RIM tape will cover them I guess but to avoid them poking through and causing punctures, I'm thinking i should trim them, but how? Can I do this easily without taking the spokes off? Despite building them myself, I have shelled out for them to be checked and adjusted as needed by my lbs so don't want to undo all their good work.

Any tips? Dremel?

k-rod · Sep 12, 2015

Do you know that the rear wheel spokes are, in some cases, differing slightly in length for each side, as the drive side needs a slightly different 'dish' to accomodate the cluster/derailleur?

Hopefully you didn't mix them up when you built the rear wheel ...

FluffyChicken · Sep 12, 2015

Re:

leave them, but to get them long enough to casue a problem mens teh threading was pretty long, what spokes? just hope they are night tight against the nipple.

ishaw · Sep 12, 2015

I do, but thanks. Wheel is dished properly, just have some spokes longer than others, down to me assuming that when I bought them they were all the same length for their intended purpose) and some appear to be a few mm longer than the rest.

ishaw · Sep 12, 2015

The lbs finished the wheel off and didn't mention they would be an issue. As above, they should all have been the right length but aren't. Spokes are dt Swiss db and as far as I can tell, mated to the nipple as intended. Anything I should check for to confirm for sure?

FluffyChicken · Sep 12, 2015

Re:

wheel is true and spokes sound correct, use a good rigid tape and go ride.

mattr · Sep 12, 2015

The threaded bit is always the same length, if the spoke is too long, you'll run out of threads in the nipple, and won't be able to achieve tension.

Check the long spokes are the same ball park tension as the others. If they are lower, you may need new spokes. (The wheels may still be round/true, but with some spokes at lower tension, they'll be all over the place after a couple of rides)

And the shop not mentioning it isn't really any indicator of if they even know to check, many wheel builders (many many many) are terribly bad at it. But they can get them round and true off the bat then spin a yarn about needing a check up, settling in, destressing etc etc. Which is an arse covering exercise for incorrectly/incompletely built wheels.

FluffyChicken · Sep 12, 2015

Re:

I am assuming these are a few mm out BTW sort of just using the wrong side spoke?

Are there some 'short' one in the other side set or did you get a 36 spokes and use in a 32?

ishaw · Sep 12, 2015

Wheels are round, true and tensioned evenly. The rear wheel is fine, it's actually the front that has the spokes that protrude further than others. Maybe I got two sets of rear spokes rather than the front/rears I thought I'd bought. Either way, wheels are fine, lbs is a good and reliable place and I've used them before for wheels and they've built good ones that haven't let me down. Just wondering if I should trim the excess (well grind down).

FluffyChicken · Sep 12, 2015

Re:

The reason I say leave them is you'll not get them back out if you do and you have the potentiom to untrue the wheel (probably wouldn't but you nvwr know)
Especially when they are not causing a problem.

Spoke trimming advice

ishaw

k-rod

Senior Retro Guru

FluffyChicken

ishaw

ishaw

FluffyChicken

mattr

Old School Grand Master

FluffyChicken

ishaw

FluffyChicken

Similar threads

Latest posts