Originally Posted by
ThermionicScott
I think spokes and tubes get overlooked sometimes when people try to lighten up their wheels. DT Revolutions or Sapim Lasers are plenty of spoke for the rear NDS. I'm having great results on a 32-spoke wheelset that I built completely out of DT Competition 1.8-1.6-1.8, which seem to be too old-school for a lot of people these days. But that sheds a lot of weight compared to regular 2.0-1.8-2.0 butted spokes or (gasp) 2.0mm straight-gauge.
And tubes: those Schwalbe "super-light" and "xx-light" tubes seem pretty rich at $13-16 each, but on a $/g basis, they're actually pretty good bang for the buck! I use the SV14A for 650B and mine weigh in right around 100g each.
As I said, I didn't build the wheels or order them. I needed a set of wheels and these were decent quality, so I bought and solved the immediate problem. Update: The rims are indeed Synergy. The spokes are round, stainless, 2.04 mm diameter at the thread and elbow ends. and 2.0 mm in the middle. I'd have to think of them as 2.0 mm straight gauge. So for the new ones I guess I'd go 1.8/1.6/1.8 butted. But I don't even own a catalog which lists spokes. I chose the inner tubes, and I'm pretty sure they are Michelins about 120 g each. I still have bad memories of Performance Forte Lunar-Light tubes at 40 g each for 21 thru 23 or so mm, from the mid-1980s. Nearly impossible to install without a leak.
Where can I get some spoke pricing info? I had a set of custom wheels made about 10 years ago with Sapim CXrays and Mavic GP-4 rims (NOS), and they are still going strong.
So considering I have 2.0 "gaspipe" SS spokes, I should save about 64% of the current spoke mass, I guess.