Originally Posted by
Brocephus
I get the physics argument for DB spokes over straight gauge, but what I'm wondering is if the difference is negligible, or if it's significant and tangible?
These days, my bikes get very low-stress use, just steady paced exercise, on good roads. No off-road, big-air thrashing, and no more road racing with heavy training, interval sprints, etc.
All my wheels are currently straight gauge Swiss DT's. Would I expect to get measurably longer service with DB spokes, or is this basically just an academic/technical argument, at least in my case?
I would think it's significant. Elasticity of a spoke is like that of a frame tube, where an increase in OD has a lot of leverage in the equation for stiffness. For frame tubes the stiffness increases with the square of the OD. If the diameter increases by 10%, the stiffness increases by 1.1*1.1 = 1.21 = 21%!