12 gauge spokes reasonably priced

silverbear

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
I'm trying to find a source for reasonably priced 12 gauge spokes. I have a project this winter which will require building my own wheels using 36 hole moped drum brake hubs with 26" 1952 Schwinn steel rims laced together with heavy duty spokes. I need to find a source for the spokes that won't put me in debtor's prison. Know of any good source, reasonably priced? Have a link? Thanks...
SB
 
Hey SB, try Bikepartsusa.com. I've been buying all of my 12g spokes there and they have both CP (chrome plated also known as UCP uniform chrome plated) and SS (Stainless Steel). The CP spokes run .29 ea and the SS are .74 ea. They have the widest selection of 12g spoke lengths that I have found. I am finding that the CP spokes are every bit as strong as the SS they just dirty up quicker tho.
 
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It will be awhile before there is anything to take a picture of. I do have the rims which are in really good shape, especially for 1952. But I do not yet have the donor moped hubs and won't even look for them until after my migration east to Maryland in another week or so. Then I'll take pictures as I go as this is something completely new to me and when I look up information on wheel lacing my eyes start to spin around after awhile. I figure I'll get the stuff together, start and go from there allowing the process to unfold. I like the idea of using vintage rims of the painted type as they are the real deal and fit a vintage cruiser of the same era. I like the idea of moped drum brakes as they are heavy duty. 12 gauge spokes are good and strong. I'm also enamored of the idea of saving money as I never have quite enough for all the stuff I want to make, yet I like good quality. And as an additional bonus, I will know a lot more later than I do now, which is nothing on the subject of building wheels. And I'll not be intimidated at tuning and balancing a wheel ever again. I'm gonna be so smart! And I will take pictures for show and tell.
SB
 
Silverbear check this out. Wheelbuilding book download page This book is the best that I have seen and I have checked most of them out and a lot of the internet ones. This book makes it plain to my thick head so most anyone could use it. It is the VERY BEST.
 
silverbear said:
It will be awhile before there is anything to take a picture of. I do have the rims which are in really good shape, especially for 1952. But I do not yet have the donor moped hubs and won't even look for them until after my migration east to Maryland in another week or so. Then I'll take pictures as I go as this is something completely new to me and when I look up information on wheel lacing my eyes start to spin around after awhile. I figure I'll get the stuff together, start and go from there allowing the process to unfold. I like the idea of using vintage rims of the painted type as they are the real deal and fit a vintage cruiser of the same era. I like the idea of moped drum brakes as they are heavy duty. 12 gauge spokes are good and strong. I'm also enamored of the idea of saving money as I never have quite enough for all the stuff I want to make, yet I like good quality. And as an additional bonus, I will know a lot more later than I do now, which is nothing on the subject of building wheels. And I'll not be intimidated at tuning and balancing a wheel ever again. I'm gonna be so smart! And I will take pictures for show and tell.
SB
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Thanks for your reply. :)

You make mention of saving money... I have to believe that cost of parts, ship, and time (if you place a value on that), will be more than that of cost to buy what is already available.

Buut, the experience of building your own wheelset gotta be priceless!

I look forward to your updates later on.

:)
 
worksmanFL said:
Thanks for your reply. :)

You make mention of saving money... I have to believe that cost of parts, ship, and time (if you place a value on that), will be more than that of cost to buy what is already available.

Buut, the experience of building your own wheelset gotta be priceless!

I look forward to your updates later on.

:)
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I well understand what you're saying, but first, there are no original wheels with heavy duty spokes. What I make I hope will be comparable to say a Husky wheel, not as good as a Worksman, because probably nothing is, but a good wheel for motorbicycling. As soon as you upgrade to drum brake hubs or disc you're talking money. For my wheels my cost will be determined in part by what I can find in a donor moped. If I can find a fairly complete one I'll have a suspension front fork, possibly headlight, tail light, drum hubs, throttle, speedometer, brake levers, handlebars and incidentals as parts scavenged. That's all that I might be interested in and the rest I can peddle on ebay where there is a brisk market for used parts, especially for ones like Honda and Puch. I think by advertising locally and watching Craigslist I should be able to find a donor in non running condition for a hundred bucks or thereabouts depending on how complete it is and in what condition. My ambition is to have what I sell from the bike pay for all or most of what I got in parts. For old cruisers the choices are limited in suspension front forks to either old and expensive Monark or Schwinn Springers. The new reproductions are not the greatest reportedly with the exception of Monarks which have been gone over with beefing up the welds and making sure all is right... and on my budget I just can't do it. The old cruisers had one inch headsets, threaded, so lots of things available for newer bikes won't work on an old one. The escape hatch for me is old mopeds which had nice suspension forks, threaded and will fit in an old cruiser head tube. So, we're not talking about shipping of anything except the spokes and nipples for lacing the wheels. Yes, a good bit of time will be involved, but that is something an old guy on social security has more of than money. If I were working long hours at good pay this venture might not make sense, but it works for me. And yes, there is also the satisfaction of adapting, fabricating, reusing what someone else thinks is junk, like an old dead moped.I'm looking forward to seeing these old 1952 Schwinn wheels which came of a ladies bike, nicely painted and with thick spokes reaching down to a hefty drum brake with good stopping power. How cool is that? Now all I have to do is learn how to do it.
SB
 
Venice Motor Bikes said:
If you need any help lacing the wheels?, let me know & I'll walk you through it.
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Thank you, Norm. I will definitely be asking for advice and will try to do a good thread with pictures so that somebody else can see that they could could do this, too. I've said before that you can teach an old dog new tricks so long as there's a treat involved. Riding along on wheels you've made yourself sounds a treat to me. It will be a month probably before I'm ready to proceed as I have to get from Minnesota to my winter situation in Maryland, get settled in, get the spokes and whatever else I need together. I also want to do some reading on the internet beforehand so that I'm at least a little familiar with things and can ask the right questions.
SB
 
there's a few youtube vids about lacing wheels, too.

the first set i ever did, i was pretty nervous about it. one thing that really helped me is to have another wheel next to you to look at. the first wheel probably took me 4 hours, and that included a few do-overs.

the most common mistake is getting an "inside" spoke and an "outside" spoke mixed up. you can lace up the whole wheel, then on one side all the spokes will be longer, and the wheel will be really bent outta shape and make it really hard to true. so you have to go back and swap them out.

i've argued with a lot of people about that. they seem to think the wheel takes two different sized spokes, but if the hub flanges are the same size, it's just because they messed up.

it's a learning experience, and a good one. after hundreds of wheels, i can build and true a wheel in about an hour.
 
bairdco said:
there's a few youtube vids about lacing wheels, too.

the first set i ever did, i was pretty nervous about it. one thing that really helped me is to have another wheel next to you to look at. the first wheel probably took me 4 hours, and that included a few do-overs.

the most common mistake is getting an "inside" spoke and an "outside" spoke mixed up. you can lace up the whole wheel, then on one side all the spokes will be longer, and the wheel will be really bent outta shape and make it really hard to true. so you have to go back and swap them out.

i've argued with a lot of people about that. they seem to think the wheel takes two different sized spokes, but if the hub flanges are the same size, it's just because they messed up.

it's a learning experience, and a good one. after hundreds of wheels, i can build and true a wheel in about an hour.
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Actually, I'm looking forward to this all the while having no illusions that it is easy as pie. If I can do the first one in a day, that's fine. I'm not necessarily quick at picking something up anymore, especially since being hit by lightning fifteen years ago which resulted in a traumatic brain injury. Things take me longer now, but once I have it I'm like a bulldog and won't let go. This will be a real good thing to know. Thank you, my friend.
SB
 
I gotta admit that this is one of those things I've put off mostly outa sheer laziness lol, but there's a coupla considerations that make me hesitant other than that as well - such as so far, all the wheels I've needed (save my first build) have entailed some oddity, such as an unusual rim/hub combination that would require a nonstandard spoke length - necessitating (insofar as I know) some pretty intimidating math and cutting a custom length spoke - which also brings up the question of cut threads vs rolled threads...

...those are my feeble excuses anyway & I was jus' kinda wondering if they're less challenging than it would appear to the novice? TBH I'm pretty happy with having my wheels built for me, my guy is good & cuts me some slack on pricing - but on the other hand I really outa learn this skill... but practicing with a "normal" wheel I can't really see being all that useful if I don't run "normal" wheels lol - or am I completely wrong?
 
as far as "custom length" spokes go, i never even bother with that. just get a standard size that's a little bit longer, lace it up, then grind the excess off.

every wheel i build, there's always a few spokes that stick above the nipples a little (enough to pop a tube) so i gotta grind them off anyway, so if there's 36 spokes with 2 or 3 threads showing, it ain't no big deal. takes about 10 seconds a spoke to grind them smooth.

as long as there's enough threads so the nipple doesn't stop before it's tight, there's no problem.

for the average guy, though, it's not really a required skill. if what you want is available already laced up, go for it, or if you get a good deal, go for that, too. unless you're building a lot of bikes or custom configurations, i wouldn't worry about learning to build wheels.

truing them, though... everyone who owns a bike should learn that...
 
BarelyAWake said:
I gotta admit that this is one of those things I've put off mostly outa sheer laziness lol, but there's a coupla considerations that make me hesitant other than that as well - such as so far, all the wheels I've needed (save my first build) have entailed some oddity, such as an unusual rim/hub combination that would require a nonstandard spoke length - necessitating (insofar as I know) some pretty intimidating math and cutting a custom length spoke - which also brings up the question of cut threads vs rolled threads...

...those are my feeble excuses anyway & I was jus' kinda wondering if they're less challenging than it would appear to the novice? TBH I'm pretty happy with having my wheels built for me, my guy is good & cuts me some slack on pricing - but on the other hand I really outa learn this skill... but practicing with a "normal" wheel I can't really see being all that useful if I don't run "normal" wheels lol - or am I completely wrong?
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Barely see it from another angle. Custom wheels are like running and regular wheels are like walking. You had to learn to walk before you could learn to run. Custom wheels take the same skills as regular wheels. On this site the guy has a spoke calculator and there are others on the web as well. Wheel building : Hope Hoops, Notubes ZTR, books, guide, courses By the way this book is the best wheel building book that I have seen. He does it in a way that is easy to understand. Also he has plans in the book to build your own truing stand. I know that you can true a wheel on the bike but it is so much better on a stand.
 
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That's true lol & applicable to so many things ;)

Given I only need two... well, now three wheels or so a year to be built & their relative weirdness, I'll prolly roll w/baird's advice & simply continue having them made for me. I'd like to say I'd build a few standard wheels simply to learn the skill - but I won't as I know for a fact that'd be untrue heh, I love to tinker - but I can never bring myself to build something I'd not use = enter the "lazy" variable again... K, mebbe "preoccupied" :p

Still, that's a handy tip - it's good to know what books are actually worth buying, thank you!
 
If I have some standard crap wheels off a wally world bike would upgraded spokes give me heavier duty wheels? Or is the weak spot on cheap wheels in the hub and/or rim? I only ask because my budget for playthings is limited but I do have time and lacing a wheel sounds like a decent skill to have, but having seen the price of rims and hubs, it would be cheaper to by the entire wheel. I do however have an abundance of "scrap bikes" that could benifit from heavier duty spokes, if heavier spokes make that big of a difference.
 
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