Wheel spoke replacement

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fullerg86

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hi everyone. I’ve got a 1942 roadmaster im working into resembling an early excelsior model. I’m trying to use as many original parts as I can and although the wheels are rusty they are definitely salvageable. The spokes however are not. I have another 36 spoke that has nice fat spokes I want to use but judging by the picture and how much the spoke does not fit all the way into the screw nipple, I am assuming I’m going to answer my own question, is this a huge no in regards to safety and spokes staying in place/keeping tension? Thanks all
 
It looks to me that you need longer spokes and I've seen some builders drill the rim to fit a more wide spoke if needed. The nipples will have to set semi-flush under good rim tape. Nobody will look down on new rims I bet, but because they need sanded anyhow, some epoxy primer and more sanding followed by paint of choice after could help with smooth rim brakes. Also I think the wheel sizes have changed some. The Sheldon brown wheel building literature has all of the calculations to figure the measurements correctly.
 
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A good rule of thumb is that the spoke threads should be flush with the end of the nipple. That's the strongest way to build them, as it prevents the nipple from breaking off at the rim.

If the original wheel was laced four cross (meaning each spoke crosses 4 other spokes, including the one right at the hub) you can do a three cross instead to gain more spoke length.

Husky industrial bicycles has pretty cheap 11g and 12g spokes if you need new ones.
 
MotoMagz said:
So you do not have nipple to fit fat spokes.. correct? I think so.. this is not safe.Just like a Nut and bolt need to be the same size and thread so do spokes and nipples.
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Hey there bairdco! The spokes and nipple that I put into the rim was just a test to see if it would happen to fit or not. Its pretty close but as you can see from the picture the nipple is half shy of getting completely around the thread. The nipple and the spoke in the picture came off a different bike. I was really hoping magically that it would have worked for convenience but as you suggested, I think im going to have to look elsewhere, thanks for the input! ;)
 
Ralph hop said:
It looks to me that you need longer spokes and I've seen some builders drill the rim to fit a more wide spoke if needed. The nipples will have to set semi-flush under good rim tape. Nobody will look down on new rims I bet, but because they need sanded anyhow, some epoxy primer and more sanding followed by paint of choice after could help with smooth rim brakes. Also I think the wheel sizes have changed some. The Sheldon brown wheel building literature has all of the calculations to figure the measurements correctly.
Click to expand...
Hey thanks Ralph, i agree with what you suggested as well. To be honest although I would love to use all original parts, the wheels are something I can look past due to safety and reliability just incase any sort of issues should arise. With being toally honest, the real reason I wanted to keep using them was because of the wheel hub, it has a skip tooth sprocket and chain I want to keep using and I was hoping I would get lucky and an easy way out by replacing the spokes.... nothing worth it is ever easy, should have learned that by now!
 
MotoMagz said:
So you do not have nipple to fit fat spokes.. correct? I think so.. this is not safe.Just like a Nut and bolt need to be the same size and thread so do spokes and nipples.
Click to expand...
Hey Moto, I appreciate you guys, this is why I come to you! I was hoping to get by easy on this one but I should know better! gotta continue moving forward! hehe
 
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