At 9:44 AM -0400 9/18/08, Dmitry Yaitskov wrote:
>
>IMO there is a lot of space between "original" with proper period
>spokes, and "daily beater". I bought the Hetchins for looks, but I do
>not want it to be a wall decoration - if keeping it original prevents
>me from riding it (and enjoying the ride), I will sacrifice the
>originality. At least that's what my current thinking is :) In any
>case, coming back to spokes - I think spokes that look good and
>"proper" from 3 meters away are good enough for me.
If you use modern spokes, you may need washers under the spoke heads. Modern hub flanges often are a lot thicker than those on older hubs, and the spoke elbows are longer to match.
If you use spokes with elbows that are too long, you will break spokes prematurely.
However, for those eager to upgrade, I caution that part of the experience and joy of riding an older bike is experiencing as it was then. These bikes were highly developed performance machines, and one should not think that without upgrades, they cannot be enjoyable to ride.
In fact, often, the upgrades will spoil the ride and make the bike less enjoyable. One example are wide handlebars on old geometries that were designed for narrow handlebars, or narrow tires on bike that need pneumatic trail to be stable.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
140 Lakeside Ave #C
Seattle WA 98122
http://www.bikequarterly.com