KH 29, what spoke wrench??

Probably covered a million times here already, but anyone know what color Park spoke wrench to use for a late model KH29 spoke nipple? Black, Green, Red . . or ??
Brycer1968

Ive always used “red” works with 14g and 13g.

I tried to buy a nice Park spoke wrench for the stock spoke nipples on my KH29, and none of the Park ones fit. I took it to a bike shop, and we tried all of the sizes. So I have to use a cheap multi-gauge spoke wrench for the stock nipples. The green and red spoke wrenches fit the stock nipples on my other KH unicycles (I have the other three sizes too!).

Man that is crazy to make a product that no one can buy a quality wrench on this continent to turn.

Maybe Kris Holm has a supply of wrenches that he can supply with each KH29 sold?

A more likely scenario. . . . I’ll take the Park wrench that is the next size down and use a low speed abrasive disk to remove just enough to fit the KH nipples. Sheesh: I think this will work, but I gotta say I hope the next generation or KH 20-29 comes with single butted Sapim Stong spokes. A great spoke for this application: They fill the extra big flange 13ga spoke hole, then taper down to 14 ga and have regular strength and sized nipples that the Park Black fits onto.

B

I have a couple of cheap, donut-shaped spoke wrenches. Each of them fits nearly every unicycle wheel I’ve ever tried them on.

Were I a full-time wrench or regular wheel builder, I’m sure I’d want one-size-only spoke wrenches, but I can’t see the point with the garage full of oddball wheels I have.

I have a KH29er, the first one to come with the dual hole cranks. 07, I believe? I also have the “red” park tool spoke wrench.

The spoke wrench works fine with the nipples on the KH 29er.

Whats the issue?

Maybe the problem is just with my wheel. It is a couple years old and has 13g spokes. Hopefully the newer KH29s have better spokes and nipples. I wish all my KH unis had 14g spokes, but even my new KH36 came stock with 13g spokes. :frowning:

Like I said before, my red Park Tool spoke wrench works with all the 13g spokes Ive had, as well as all the 14g Primo spokes I use.

With 14g spokes the wrench is a tad bit loose, so if the nipple has locked itself in I have to use a vice grip to loosen, and then the spoke wrench works fine.

The correct spoke wrench depends on the size of the specific nipples, not the spoke gauge. I’m sure you have Park wrenches that work for your 13g and 14g spokes–my Park wrenches work for every other 13g and 14g spoked wheel that I have. My KH29 must just have odd nipples.

Ok, so I went through all my spoke nipples and found a Park knock-off (Black)that was too tight. About 50 strokes with a small file wrapped in 320 grit emery paper and it fits nice and snugly.

I found that the KH nipples deform easily because they are paper thin, so using the right wrench is more important. Speaking of problems, I also discoverd that someone (in Asia??) had ground off as much as 1/3 of the backside of the nipple - either with a tool or a spoke lacing machine had a broken nipple driver that shears off a lot of material. The slot was essentially gone . . .plus some . . .in some cases you could see light through the spoke nipple hole from the back side. A couple of them were so mangled that the back of the nipple snapped right off and all the others look like hell and don’t trun easily.
OH boy . . . 13 ga keeps me in the unicycle world with one N. American source while 14 ga would put me in the bike world and finding my own local replacement parts really fast.
AAARRGGGH :(:(:frowning:

Why dont you just re-build with 14g spokes?

Why don’t you give us $40 each for new spokes? :stuck_out_tongue:

So it sounds like my KH29 isn’t the only one with wack nipples.

I rebuilt the whole wheel with a black park. Worked great.