Spokes

[leedsuk]

Hello, I received my rear hub kit a few days ago, however the spokes are slightly bent where they go into the rim, will this be a problem. Thank Andrew

 

[vfr400]

It's not good, but it'll be OK. It's not worth doing anything unless they start breaking, which shouldn't happen for a long while unless there are other problems.

If I were to criticise it, I'd say they should have used a 1-cross pattern with 13g spokes, but better still would have been 2-cross with 14g. The smaller 14g nipples can get a better angle. Here's one I built like that last night:

 

[tomtag]

I bought a kit with the same issue, but started to ride anyway. What I hadn't realized was that the wheel had also not been built properly, the spoke tensions were way off. After a couple of rides the wheel was close to collapse & I even had a couple of spoke nipples bouncing around inside the rim. I only mention it because the rim looked very similar to the one in your picture so maybe we bought the same kit & it could be worth you checking spoke tension is consistent around the wheel. I got it trued, the guy that did it said they had used very heavy gauge spokes to build which wasn't ideal to get a good tension, but since he did it things have been ok.

 

[Nealh]

Can we see a pic of the whole wheel for clarity ?
It can be seen that 13g 2.4mm spokes have been used, though if anything occurs it will be better to use the more flexible 14g/2mm spokes in the future.

 

[leedsuk]

Thanks for the replies, do you think it is safe to ride or should I return it?

 

[WheezyRider]

My conversion kit from "DAS KIT" was like this. Eventually I had a spoke break and other people who'd bought them reported spoke breakages after a while. As vfr said, it looks like it should have a crossing of 1.

In principle, a crossing of 2 should be fine with this motor/rim combination, but I think it has something to do with the way the nipples they have chosen sit in the rim.

With the help of the guys on this forum I built a new motor/rim with a crossing of 2 and the nipple geometry was fine, even though the rim was deeper than the original kit.

 

[vfr400]

It'll be fine. I've had a load of motor wheels like that.

 

[WheezyRider]

I think you will be fine to use it, I'd just give the spokes a twang to see if they are tensioned about the same and check that it runs true in the frame.

If a spoke does break, it's not an expensive fix.

 

[Nealh]

It will be fine, shame they didn't use a 1x build for a straight nipple entry.
Pluck each spoke to check they sound right, one should hear a nice taut ping any that have a low dull twang may need tightening.

 

[vfr400]

Be careful, if it's a rear wheel, it should have an off-set (dish0 built into the rim, in which case it'll have different tension on one side to the other. If you tighten the looser spokes on the left side to make them the same as the right side, you'll lose your off-set.

If it's a front motor, it should be symmetrical so the spokes should all have the same tension.

 

[Nealh]

Both sides should both have enough tension that they ping nicely just the rhs side will have a tad higher pitch.

 

[vfr400]

Both sides should both have enough tension that they ping nicely just the rhs side will have a tad higher pitch.

They're 13g. They'll be all over the place re tone.

 

[esuark]

mine looks just like that done 3000 miles in less than a year no problem.

 

[WheezyRider]

They're 13g. They'll be all over the place re tone.

I can just imagine the pair of you playing a duet on your rear wheel harps, giving a rendition of your original composition "Different Spokes"

 

[vfr400]

I can just imagine the pair of you playing a duet on your rear wheel harps, giving a rendition of your original composition "Different Spokes"

I've just done it. I got a nice tune on my 14g wheel. The 13g , let's put it this way, is not going to make no.1 in the charts, not even the grunge music charts.