Sunday, 21 December 2014

Where to get "short" spokes?

Sometimes spokes break.

While many online big names and "big box" stores sell spokes for "full-size" bikes, where does one go to get a spare spoke for a smaller-wheeled bike, like, for instance, the Cinzia folding bike I owned for 20-odd years?

While very popular bikes, like the Brompton, are catered fairly widely catered for, when it comes to the various lesser known brands, it gets a bit harder.

After some careful measuring up, I established that my folder needed a 192mm long spoke.
Go online to your favourite supplier, and just see if they stock 192mm spokes!



Anyway, I found a source (in the UK, but talso probably ship internationally if you do want odd-sized spokes!) that did just the thing I wanted - SJS cycles in Bridgewater, Somerset.

SJS only sell one type of spoke that is 192mm long, mond, but that's a good start,
It is a "straight gauge" 14g stainless steel spoke, with a nipple included.
A pretty "basic" spoke, but sold at a pretty basic price, too!
Just £1.84 (plus postage) for a pack of 6, including brass nipples.
For my American friends, that's just 50 cents a spoke!

So that was what I put in!
And I found them to be fine.
Although some of the other spokes intermittently broke, the "new ones" never did!
Jobst Brandt puts most spoke breakages down to metal fatigue, so I guess that is why - the 20-year-old spokes were more fatigues than the new ones!

So, if you want odd length 14g "straight" spokes, you know where to go!

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