Spoking.

[toglhot]

I ordered some front wheel stainless spokes from a local supplier, they arrived and so I re polished the rim and hub and laced the wheel together, centred it, trued it and torqued the spokes only to find there was 3mm of thread showing on each spoke. I removed a couple of spokes and compared them to the stock spokes and yep, the stainless spokes have a longer thread. I contacted the supplier and so received a number of abusive texts and emails saying I didn't know what I was doing. Both he and his 'professional' spoker insisting that visible thread on spokes is perfectly acceptable. He even sent a picture of a rear wheel his 'professional' spoker had laced showing visible thread. I've been spoking both bicycle and motorbike wheels since 1968, never have I come across this problem before. There are calculators to work out spoke lengths for a given size rim and hub and thread lengths are pretty standard. Each nipple is bored about 3mm to hide thread.

Fortunately, the local supplier didn't have any spokes for the rear wheel, so I ordered them from Heidens in The Netherlands. Funnily enough, despite coming all the way from The Netherlands they were the same price. So, I laced the rear wheel together, centred, trued and torqued the spokes and guess what - no thread showing. I took a picture and emailed it to the local supplier suggesting he change his supplier and his 'professional' spoker as clearly neither knew what they were doing. Unsurprisingly I never heard back from him, but he did remove my account and refuses to sell to me again. That absolutely broke my heart, where on earth am I supposed to get sub standard parts now?

Here's some pics showing the thread on the front wheel and the lack of visible thread on the rear. The bike looks great with polished stainless and aluminium wheels, but I do cringe whenever look at the front wheel.

Last pic is of a very technical piece of kit I use for trueing rims.

 

[650Skull]

Is this an information thread on not what to buy and complaints

 

[BluzPlayer]

The wheels look gorgeous Toglhot.
Your work is astounding.
Love the high tech tooling.
It's not what you have but how you use what you have. Great example. Simple just works.
Love the pic of the bike.
The finish throughout the build is absolutely top notch. Thanks for sharing.

 

[BluzPlayer]

Is this an information thread on not what to buy and complaints

Hey Skull...
Seems to me like it's just a member sharing his work on his bike as well as the hurdles he had to jump through. Poor quality replacement parts are nothing new in regard to these bikes.
Some members may have accepted the suppliers retort and the exposed threads as well.
It is nice to follow a craftsman that has non compromising standards.

 

[toglhot]

He's probably a loyal customer of the local seller I referred to, we only have one in Oz. Not to worry, he'll find out what the guy is like when he has a complaint. I did price a tank cap a while back - $280. I passed on that price.

 

[Wingedwheel]

I’m a little confused as to how a spoke can be cut with so much precision that if I turn every single one in until the threads disappear my wheel is true. I just replaced spokes on two XS wheels and I have spokes showing. I know I didn’t order mine from your local guy. It must be a spoke conspiracy.

 

[bosco659]

I ordered some front wheel stainless spokes from a local supplier, they arrived and so I re polished the rim and hub and laced the wheel together, centred it, trued it and torqued the spokes only to find there was 3mm of thread showing on each spoke. I removed a couple of spokes and compared them to the stock spokes and yep, the stainless spokes have a longer thread. I contacted the supplier and so received a number of abusive texts and emails saying I didn't know what I was doing. Both he and his 'professional' spoker insisting that visible thread on spokes is perfectly acceptable. He even sent a picture of a rear wheel his 'professional' spoker had laced showing visible thread. I've been spoking both bicycle and motorbike wheels since 1968, never have I come across this problem before. There are calculators to work out spoke lengths for a given size rim and hub and thread lengths are pretty standard. Each nipple is bored about 3mm to hide thread.

Fortunately, the local supplier didn't have any spokes for the rear wheel, so I ordered them from Heidens in The Netherlands. Funnily enough, despite coming all the way from The Netherlands they were the same price. So, I laced the rear wheel together, centred, trued and torqued the spokes and guess what - no thread showing. I took a picture and emailed it to the local supplier suggesting he change his supplier and his 'professional' spoker as clearly neither knew what they were doing. Unsurprisingly I never heard back from him, but he did remove my account and refuses to sell to me again. That absolutely broke my heart, where on earth am I supposed to get sub standard parts now?

Here's some pics showing the thread on the front wheel and the lack of visible thread on the rear. The bike looks great with polished stainless and aluminium wheels, but I do cringe whenever look at the front wheel.

Last pic is of a very technical piece of kit I use for trueing rims.

Looks great. Too shiny to ride on lol. Looks like you don’t have too far to go to finish this project. Congrats!

 

[toglhot]

I’m a little confused as to how a spoke can be cut with so much precision that if I turn every single one in until the threads disappear my wheel is true. I just replaced spokes on two XS wheels and I have spokes showing. I know I didn’t order mine from your local guy. It must be a spoke conspiracy.View attachment 204996View attachment 204997View attachment 204998

Looking at the last picture, only the spokes on the right side are showing thread, that suggests to me that the rim is not centred, either that or they are mismatched spokes. In other pictures some thread is showing on some spokes no matter the side, no idea what's going on there. Spokes are most definitely threaded with precision, that is why on any new bike with spoked wheels there is no thread showing. My rear wheel has absolutely no thread showing on either side, and I have never come across this before in 53 years of spoking. But, you have it your way, I'll stick to having no thread showing.

 

[650Skull]

He's probably a loyal customer of the local seller I referred to, we only have one in Oz. Not to worry, he'll find out what the guy is like when he has a complaint. I did price a tank cap a while back - $280. I passed on that price.

talking about me or to me, lol.

Any one who has been around the XS650 scene for a while knows who to buy parts from that are the best value for money and not get ripped off, or disappointed due to the product not up to the buyers standard.

Any one who has been around the XS650 scene for a while knows that Geoff's XS gets his gear from Mike Lolondale in Canada who is the main supplier of MikesXS and most XS parts retailers.

Anyone who has been around for a while, before Geoff's was Geoff'sXS knows Geoff's prices and his philosophy surrounding the XS650 and why he has/had a shed full of XS650's. He is a restorer who gets customers who are prepared to spend up big on restorations.

So if someone wants to get MikesXS parts and pay through the nose and take the risk that those parts may not be the quality of a retailer/wholesaler who specializes in said parts then that is up to them.......

Speculation on my buying habits is speculation. Now if you had asked about my buying habits and what i know about some future parts that you may have wanted to buy, then yes i may have forewarned about something that may not have been up to a standard.......Again its speculation

 

[Yamikaze]

I have been searching for spoke torque specs to no avail. Can anyone point me in the right direction?