Replacing spokes

The Spiderman

I lost my chain into,the spokes today,with the resulting chewed but unbroken spokes.
The wheel is still true but most of the spokes on the drive side are stretched and have lost tension.

I reckon I will have to replace all 16 driveside spokes.LBS has quoted £50 to rebulid,for which I could replace the wheel with a new one.Its a Deore hub with an XM317 rim.)

Whats the correct procedure for replacing the spokes?

I was thinking that if I remove,replace and retension each spoke ,one by one,that the wheel should remain true......

Is this assumption correct? :?:

How can I find out what length spokes I need?

I might just buy some new wheels,but figured for the sake of the cost of the spokes,it woud be good practice,to learn some wheel building skills!

supersonic

That is expensive! Just goes to show how good value the Merlin wheels are.

Have a read of Sheldon, he has a good article on this. There is a little more to it than this!

ROCHA

Find another bike shop. 20£ should be enough for new spokes and rebuild.

nicklouse

first do you have tools to remove the cassette.

have a read of sheldons site on wheels.

TBH i would buy new and then see if you can fix your old. at least you will be mobile for the weekend.

oh and 50 does sound a bit much. try another LBS first.

The Spiderman

Yep,I have the cassette removal tools,and have taken the cassette off before.
I have trued wheels before and recently replaced a couple of spokes in my road bike with reasonable succcess.I can correct lateral true,but struggle a bit with radial true.I took a look at Sheldons,which is useful but just wondered if there was a general rule to replacement ,when replacing spokes that are not actually broken so I can maintain the wheel's trueness and tension,eg: remove one,replace one,alternating from oposite sides as I go?
Should I replace spokes at 12,6,and then 3 and 9 o clock postions,alternating as I go to maintain radial true?
If I get stuck a mate of ine,has recently managed to put a new rim on an existing hub,so I can get him to look at it.

AndyGates

One at a time sounds smart, but being realistic, it's going to lose true and you'll have to true and tension it up. Sixteen is a lot of spokes to replace! The advantage of doing it your way is that the wheel should stay properly dished - if you replace the whole side in one go, you have to re-centre the rim on the hubnuts. Go for it.

tyno

If you've got a dishing tool or other means of checking the dish of the wheel easily, replacing all of the spokes at once will be fastest option (assuming you can remember how to lace the wheel correctly.) Otherwise, doing them one at a time and maintaining dish and true as you go will work out just as well and be easier but will take heaps longer.

nicklouse

The Spiderman wrote:

Yep,I have the cassette removal tools,and have taken the cassette off before.
I have trued wheels before and recently replaced a couple of spokes in my road bike with reasonable succcess.I can correct lateral true,but struggle a bit with radial true.I took a look at Sheldons,which is useful but just wondered if there was a general rule to replacement ,when replacing spokes that are not actually broken so I can maintain the wheel's trueness and tension,eg: remove one,replace one,alternating from oposite sides as I go?
Should I replace spokes at 12,6,and then 3 and 9 o clock postions,alternating as I go to maintain radial true?
If I get stuck a mate of ine,has recently managed to put a new rim on an existing hub,so I can get him to look at it.

i will go back to what i said before. new wheel and then have a play with the old wheel.

Why i find it easier to build a wheel from scratch. i recently had to do a sililar job. i had given a wheel to a lad at the shop for building. which we knew would be a fun job as the boss had already done one for me. the idea was to get him to use the same length spokes and different length nipples in the build. well he did not and dishing the wheel was not posible.

so i started off replacing the nipples one by one...... i then ended up untensioning the whole wheel and starting the build from scratch.(well from basically no tension in the spokes).

now if i had had the time and did not need to be mobile i could have tried your idea of one by one at 12,6,3,9 ........ replacing 1 or 2 spokes on a wheel is an easiy ish job.

but going back to your original post.

The wheel is still true but most of the spokes on the drive side are stretched and have lost tension.

none of your spokes are at the correct tension any way. which will make things fun.

Mr Munson of wheel pro does a very good book on building wheels and also on making your own tools. i highly recomend getting it. (tis a E-book) from his webby and giving it a go. but if you want to go riding this weekend buy a new wheel.

The Spiderman

I`'ve now got the wheel off the bike and taken the cassette off,and the damage may not be as bad as I feared.Only 7 spokes are actually stretched or gouged,none are broken,.The ones laced on the inner side of the hub flange on the drive side are still good ,undamaged and tight.For the sake of 5 quid for the spokes,I reckon it is worth seeing if I can save the wheel.

Ta for the replies so far.

The Spiderman

Had good read of that loony Sheldon Brown's site,and read my Parktool book.A bit of lateral thinking,5 quid and1 1/2 hours later,I have a wheel as good as new.

Ta for the tips.