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twisted spokes?

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
450
Anyone versed in wheel theory know what's up with this? All I know is that dans comp used to offer it as an option way back in the day, but also touted it as strengthening the wheel. Another similar theory is the whole tied spoke thing, and it looks a bit less whack.
 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
450
Looks like it's as we suspected, assuming twisting to be similiar enough to tying/soldering:
spoke.JPG
From: The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt
 
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ScarredOne

Monkey
Sep 18, 2001
185
0
I only did that back in the day when I had used spokes that were too long for a wheel I was building + I was bored. The result was a very stiff wheel, and I always wondered how much it would take before one blew up.
 

joeg

I have some obvious biases
Jul 20, 2011
198
137
Santa Cruz CA
A good friend and great wheelbuilder-turned-barman who goes by twistyactionusa who swears by this, and built me and many others wheels in this fashion bitd. I have no data about wheel stiffness, but they look cool, and the durability concern was never a concern. I put thousands of miles on twisty mtb and fixey wheels (disclaimer: i was an early adopter) on spokes as thin as 17g low spoke count twisties and **** was good. its definitely harder to build correct wheels though, tensiometers don't work, nor does your normal "finger squeeze" feelometer, so its easy to build them poorly, and i've heard plenty of stories that didn't turn out as well as mine.

there are issues with spoke angles on 26" wheels if anyone is still riding that wheel size, with nipple seats being made for not that kind of thing, so you are out on your own to figure if your combo is appropriate.

For those in future centuries using this thread for academic research, add 2mm to a conventional spoke length a calculation, do a double twist so all spokes go to their "natural hole" (heh heh), and do a 2X for less than 700c.
Allow 4-6 hours for the build, with twice as many beers.

Or you could just get high flange hubs like chub and e13 offerings (disclaimer: associated with both brands, and the reason they were developed were to make wheels stiffer without having to resort to twistyaction). my last year of ME was spent on it, if anyone cares i'll bore you to fcuking tears with the analysis and experiments.

is ridemonkey christian? why are all ***** censored, while my mom can see my curses on facebook?
 
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Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,077
5,990
borcester rhymes
LOL I love that just because people don't want to see swear words they're automatically christian. "I'm an atheist so I can say ****"

wacky woody had a wheel or pair set up with spokes like this. They seemed to do OK.
 

VMARTINEZ

Monkey
May 23, 2005
303
18
That was a thing in BMX Racing in the 80's. So it's not new.
Had a few friends here in Utah that thought it was cool.
VM
 

Dodgysam

Chimp
Jan 23, 2013
26
0
I have wired and epoxied spokes on my powered velodrome race bike. Means the spoke nipples dont come loose with the vibration of the engine.
Makes for a sweet stiff wheel too.
 

stiksandstones

Turbo Monkey
May 21, 2002
5,078
25
Orange, Ca
I tried them all (methods) back in my world cup tech days, never found twisting or soldering to be any more durable than a standard build. The method of lacing, building, truing, tensioning is far more important. 29 World Championships, World Cup championships, National Championships were won on my wheels, I think 2 were on a twisted or soldered wheel, that took 3x as long.
 

Huck Banzai

Turbo Monkey
May 8, 2005
2,523
23
Transitory
Back when I was doing runs in NYC in the late 80's, tied spokes was 'neato'; same feedback then as now -- more trouble than its worth for pretty much zero benefit.

Aiming for style? Hop to it! Looking for performance? dont bother.