Joe Salva said:finally after a number of years I'm ready to build my first wheel. Ultegra 6500 freehub, Ma3 rim,
DT 14 gauge, spokes, 3x. What size spokes? For freehub
according to Damon Rinard spocalc 293.4, 292.3 according to DT website 294.7, 293.2 according to
nashbar tech 297, 296
IF you entered valid inputs, I'd use the Rinard spocalc, it's been accurate for me. It does the
"high school math" that Mr. Bennett comments on, and does it well. [Not sure if I could get my
college freshmen to dependably derive these solutions from scratch, though].
IIRC, DT measures their spokes in an unusual way, so it could be essentially agreeing with Rinard,
and anyway +/- 1mm won't really matter. Don't take my word for this, though, I'm not certain.
Sorry to say, but Nashbar comes out distant third in the credibility department on this issue.
As a final comment, if you're going to be too long or too short about 1mm, I tend to prefer too
long. With a double-wall rim like the Ma3, you will still keep the spoke ends far from the
inner tube.
The reason I like this: I can thread the nipples onto the spokes to a consistent point, say, the
bottom of the nipple slot, before I reach very much tension. This starts me out with spokes of
fairly even tension and saves a lot of correction later. (Got my handy Bicycle Research speed tool
for spinning the nipples on).
Best of luck,
Mark Janeba