At 10:35 PM -0500 12/12/01, garth libre wrote:
>I keep on breaking spokes on the drive side and the non drive side
>of my training clinchers. The rims are MA-40 Mavics and the hub is
>Suntour Superbe Pro. It is 36 spoke, cross 3 and 12 gauge spokes.
>The spokes snap at the hub bend during a heavy sprint. The wrench
>here, says that for a strongish (glowing me) rider of around 160
>lbs, the rear wheel requires better than 12 gauge, no matter how
>smooth the roads are. He wants to rebuild using double butted
>14-12-14 gauge also cross 3. He also says that straight 12 gauge is
>for weight weenies, not the real world. I am ashamed to say that I
>thought all along that the higher number is the lighter wire (not
>the other way around). This wrench is Spanish only speaking, and my
>Spanish is only fair. Is his advise on the money? Garth Libre
>Surfside Fl
From my Bicycle Glossary:
Gauge
A measurement of thickness, particularly of wire. The major use of gauges in bicycle technology is for spokes. There are several different national systems of gauge sizes, and this has been a great cause of confusion. A particular problem is that French gauge numbers are smaller for thinner wires, while the U.S./British gauge numbers are larger for thinner wires. The crossover point is right in the popular range of sizes used for bicycle spokes:
U.S./British 14 gauge is the same as French 13 gauge U.S./British 13 gauge is the same as French 15 gauge
Newer I.S.O. practice is to ignore gauge numbers, and refer to spokes by their diameter in millimeters:
U.S./British 13 gauge is 2.3 mm U.S./British 14 gauge is 2.0 mm U.S./British 15 gauge is 1.8 mm U.S./British 16 gauge is 1.6 mm
Sheldon "http://sheldonbrown.com/glossary" Brown
Newtonville, Massachusetts
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