Fabric spokes. Half the weight of Sapim CX-Rays and twice the price.
https://gearjunkie.com/berd-bicycle-spokes-soft-uhmwp-polymer
Sounds awesome.
Spinergy did it many years ago.
UHMwPE is just the wrong material for the job. Why would you want spokes that creep?
Spinergy did it many years ago.
They still do, however the idea never took off. Are we looking at the future? Is this the next disk brake trend?
Spinerhy seem completely different than these. Spox had huge, fat spokes. Squishy and aero as a brick. These are supposed to be more similar to bladed and much lighter.
I had a set of xaero wheels which were almost the same as the spox. The spokes were pretty fat.
I am curious about what the creep rate is. Is it possible that the rate is low enough so as not to effect performance over the normal life of a wheel?
rich
Nice. These would definitely complete an ultralight build.
Spinergy did it many years ago.
I saw what you did there.
Isn’t the aerodynamics the most important with spokes? So you do not want spokes with a round cross-section.
Isn’t the aerodynamics the most important with spokes? So you do not want spokes with a round cross-section.
Nah. The most important part of spokes is their ability to hold tension, and not snap in half.
I feel like carbon fiber is better suited to this application.
I personally use angel hair pasta for my spokes. After I use them for a ride I have the perfect amount of pasta for dinner for two.
Hello GreenPease and All,
What is this at $17K +? And I thought bike wheels were expensive.
http://www.apsltd.com/carbon-wheel-y-spoke-70-1800mm.html
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/product-news/dassi-graphene-frame-260002
Maybe Graphene spokes one of these days … ? Graphene spokes so thin and light they would cut your finger (or leg) off if you touched them.
A single Graphene thread strung like horsehair on a violin bow … could be used as a chef’s knife and would not require sharpening.
Like the Giant EXT wheels that Mike Burrows designed?
Or Spinergy Rev-X?
Or Specialized Trispoke?
Not sure if this was intended sarcastically or not, but I’d tend to agree. Only problem is that carbon would be super hard to install yourself
Hello imswimmer328 and All,
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So these cloth spokes for training and the carbon ones for racing sounds pretty nice. Thanks for sharing!
Bonded composite joints are very strong. Considering how it’s loaded, I would be no less confident in its strength than an ordinary spoke. My only issue with these is that they’d be easily damaged from direct impacts on the spokes, so definitely better to use on race day only wheels.
Hello imswimmer328 and All,
To your point … as I recall from many many years ago there were some carbon fiber spokes but they were discontinued due to failure on side impact. Hopefully with their good reputation the current carbon fiber and other exotic material spoke manufacturers have created a more more resilient product.
Reminds me that Clark Rasmussen, Velomax, https://patents.google.com/patent/US5487592 , (straight pull spokes) built wheels for me that are still in the garage. Some of my wheels have titanium spokes but Clark had to tension them more than steel spokes he said. After all these years they are still true though.
http://www.wheelbuilder.com/spoke-selection.html Wheelbuilder comments on spokes.