a) Does anyone make Ti spokes for 36ers (thats 376mm)
b) if any one has Ti spokes on their 36er, how do they corner
c) if I can get Ti spokes for my 36er should I get the round or bladed
d) Once spokes are taken off of a wheel can they be put back on
e) Do you need new nipples with new spokes
(I do have someone to help with lacing the wheel but it is easier to ask Q’s here than to ask him)
I don’t know whether you can get 376mm Ti spokes, but I expect you can.
b) The material used to make the spokes will have no discernible effect on the way the wheel rides.
c) Round will be stronger and easier to work with, bladed might have slightly better aerodynamic qualities, although I expect on a unicycle any advantage of bladed spokes will be negated by wheel wobble.
d) I generally would advise against re-using spokes that have been laced into a wheel; it is likely that they will be more prone to failure. This might be less true with Ti spokes, I’m not sure. It is certainly possible to re-use spokes that have been unlaced from a wheel. It is quite tedious to gently remove all the spokes from a wheel; if I’m de-lacing a wheel I usually use a bolt cutter. (Be careful where your spokes are pointing).
e) I re-use nipples fairly regularly; in general I’d say they need replacement only if the spoke wrench faces have started to round off. (Or if you’re using different-sized spokes, of course).
As always, Sheldon Brown’s site should answer any questions you have, and even some you didn’t know about.
I know this is not true from bike experience and reviews. What happens is that the Ti spokes are more flexible (even if you get them very tight) so cornering isn’t as tight. I was just wondering how much of a difference it makes on a 36er as I haven’t tried one with Ti spokes
It’s a super odd wheel size
Maybe email UDC UK Roger. UDC USA doesn’t list them, I bet they can’t help. Of course you can get them. Maybe Roger or USA UDC folk will tell you who to call. Custom stuff is always available if you have time and money. It might cost $, but I am sure a set of 36 ti spokes is doable.
All parts that aren’t broke can be reused. Especially on uni’s used for street commuting, where sudden failure isn’t a safety issue. You might consider it a waste of time in some cases. A lot depends on application. Someone who rides like Kris may consider reusing an old part a waste of time, while a less forceful rider would ride the same uni for years with no trouble.
A good wrench learns where to look for wear, cracks etc. Most parts are tossed way before their time. When I work on other peoples stuff, I toss a lot of parts into the trash. Way more then if it was my ride. I think all wrenches are like this.
We must stand by our labor. You pay for the parts.
A wrench will get blamed for every part that goes bad, and asked to provide free labor to make good. So parts fly into the trash like water over a falls. And the customer gets the “really good fix”. And the wrench cannot be blamed if a new part fails. It is not his fault.
All Pro wrenches think this way. That is one of the reasons it is so much cheaper to learn to work on your own stuff. You can afford to gamble a bit on older parts. The LBS cannot, and won’t try.
It took about a year of messing around with spoke manufacturers to persuade them to make stainless coker spokes, I dunno how long or how expensive it’d be to get custom ti spokes made in silly long lengths.
Yeah you can reuse spokes/nipples, I’ve had some spokes break after a rebuild cos they were dinged and bent, but that was a wheel that had been hammered a lot.
Joe