BMS spoke hub ends too short ?

[eHomer]

My Q100H has just arrived from BMS, with the usual quick delivery service, just over a week since ordering.

However, the spokes I ordered with it do not fit in the spoke holes correctly.

I ordered forty 260mm long 13g stainless steel spokes with the hub.

I just tried putting them in, and couldn't get them round the elbow at the end, even with moderate jiggling about. I looked at them a bit more closely, and found that the elbow was too short for the thickness of the spoke holes in the Q100 hub. On closer inspection, they'd sent me 42 spokes in all, and one of them had a slightly longer elbow, which slips easily into the hub flange, turning easily round the bend, right up to the stop.

Presumably, they've sent me the wrong spokes, designed for a much thinner hub flange ?

The only parameters you can specify when ordering are the spoke length and the gauge (diameter). They're bang on the length ok, (260mm), and the diameter is 2.2mm, so they're pretty much 13 gauge.

Anyone had this before ? I guess I'll have to email them and see what they say.

( I ordered the 260mm ones in the end Dave, because I have another 700c rim, which they will fit ok).

Here's a photo of the one spoke that's ok, and one of the other forty one !!

Damn ! I was really looking forward to building my first wheel, now I'll have to wait another ten days at least....

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I read somewhere that the solution to this spoke breaking problem, reported elsewhere, is to have the spoke hard agaunst the flange, which makes a bit of sense. If you can get them in at all, just bend the rest of the spoke over, or is it physically not possible?

 

[eHomer]

I've just had a go Dave.

Yes, using a quite bit of hand force they can be worked in to the hole and bent up a fair way, as shown in the photos. They're then very stiff to rotate, but they can also be forced out again, and looking carefully at the spoke there appears to be no damage, (the stainless spoke being so hard compared with the alloy flange I suppose).

I guess I could then carefully bend them towards the rim with a pair of pliers to get the bend as close to the flange edge as possible.

I'd assumed they needed to rotate easily to be able to take the tension up without kinking, so the extreme tightness seemed wrong, especially as the single spoke in the pack with the longer radius offset fitted so smoothly.

Here's the photos:

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You shouldn't need pliers to bend them, just manhandle them. I don't know how you lace a rim, but I always do the clockwise ones first. When they're stiff like that, it's difficult to rotate the motor enough relative to the rim to get the nipples on the anti-clockwise ones. You have to go round and round pulling the spokes back relative to the motor until you have the maximum angle on the spokes and all their nipples sit against the rim. Then, you can put in the anticlockwise ones. That'll make more sense when you do it.

 

[eHomer]

Thanks Dave.
I'll give it a go, using just 2 cross, as indicated on the BMS site.
I'd also tried Googling "spokes tight on hub", which gave this hit

http://www.wheelfanatyk.com/blog/wheel-building-tip-no-14-set-the-spoke-path/

Where they also said that spokes tight at the hub end and needing more bend are stronger than easily fitting ones.

A case where my "gut feeling" on this new skill area for me is leading me astray.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I get every problem during my own builds because I try so many different things. The strange thing is, somebody on the forum always gets the same problems as me a couple of days later after I've figured out a solution.It's very weird.

 

[eHomer]

Lucky for me though !