On Sunday, November 3, 2002, at 04:17 PM, Eric Elman wrote:
> Are there any standard guidelines used to determine the best number and
> gauge of spokes based on a riders weight and ride style? If not, what
> are
> the typical factors used to determine spoke count and gauge?
It's been said before and it's worth saying again, it's not the parts it's the build. I'm 5'10" and 190 and not at all light on my stuff. I ride 28 and 32 spokes on 90% of my wheels. I've done most of my loaded touring on 32 spokes. With that said I've also built thousands of wheels so I've gotten quite good at it. As far as the gauge I personally like 14 straight or 14/15 DB, I've used 15 straight, 15/17 DB, titanium, and carbon fiber and have always come back to 14 and 14/15 stainless.
Low spoke count wheels with really thin spokes have been around forever
for racing. Traditionally training wheels had 32 or 36 spokes, touring
36 or 40, and tandems 40 or 48. In many cases they would mix the
numbers of spokes with a larger spoke count in the rear. I think it
might have been Stella that made 17 gauge spokes way back for racing
wheels and 12 gauge spokes were really common for tandems.
enjoy,
Brandon"monkeyman"Ives
SB, CA