Spokes ? Sizes ?

The 14/15/14 is the thickness of the spokes, using the American Wire Gauge, lower numbers are thicker. Spokes come in butted and non-butted flavours. Butted are thicker at the ends and thinner in the middle. The idea is most breaks occur at the elbow so the middle can be thinner and save a few grams. You should be able to look at yours and see if they are butted or not. As for the thickness I think 14 gauge is 2.0 mm, and 15 gauge is 1.8 mm. I would stay away from the 17 gauge unless you're racing.

The 306 to 260 is the length, in mm, measured from the elbow to the very end, including the threaded part. You have to replace spokes with the same length, Either measure yours old ones or you can try the calculator at this site.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

If you can find your hubs and rims listed it will give you the spoke length. Don't forget most rear wheels use different sizes on the drive and non-drive side.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense.

jeez I love this forum

I just had my entire back wheel replaced, the guy at the shop told me it would be cheaper that way then replacing the 6 spokes that were bad ($100 for the new wheel). I made sure that I got the old wheel back and plan on replacing all the spokes myself and have a extra wheel onhand for emergencies, or quick change from road to off-road

Thanks again

eric_the_red said:

The 14/15/14 is the thickness of the spokes, using the American Wire Gauge, lower numbers are thicker. Spokes come in butted and non-butted flavours. Butted are thicker at the ends and thinner in the middle. The idea is most breaks occur at the elbow so the middle can be thinner and save a few grams. You should be able to look at yours and see if they are butted or not. As for the thickness I think 14 gauge is 2.0 mm, and 15 gauge is 1.8 mm. I would stay away from the 17 gauge unless you're racing.

The 306 to 260 is the length, in mm, measured from the elbow to the very end, including the threaded part. You have to replace spokes with the same length, Either measure yours old ones or you can try the calculator at this site.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/spocalc.htm

If you can find your hubs and rims listed it will give you the spoke length. Don't forget most rear wheels use different sizes on the drive and non-drive side.