Respoking advice
 

I'm thinking about re-lacing the 27" wheels on my '73 Dawes. The spokes are pretty discolored and a couple nipples are tough to adjust. It would also give me an opportunity deep-clean and polish everything.
Thinking about using stainless spokes if it's price-appropriate for the bike and wheels. Where is the best place to source spokes and nipples for this? I've seen instructions on the various sites for measuring spokes and I can measure spoke thickness, etc. I've relaced motorcycle wheels in the past but it was a one-for-one deal on an old 'giro bike and I used the original spokes which were in great shape.

You might want to put up a WTB for 27 inch wheels on the C&V for sale forum. Decent quality 27 inch wheels are not hard to source. Usually shipping is a killer on used wheels but you live in New England and so there are likely forum members near you who may have what you are looking for.

I'm sure you can find DT or Wheelsmith spokes on any number of sites so you can shop around for price. I'm guessing you're looking for 14 gauge spokes? There are also several sites/apps that have spoke length calculators based on your hub and rim dimensions.

I considered respoking the wheels on my 78 Motobecane but after pricing spokes decided to clean up the discolored spokes a bit. If I buy new spokes for a rider, they will be for 700c wheels.

Assuming the wheels are not yet apart, review the spoke engagement and mark with a sharpie and a code, 2,3 stripes, on the odd ones if any, too short or too long (showing being ground off as an example)
Drive side rear on a 5 speed wheel would be 1 m shorter than the other side, so keep track.
Spokes are not cheap now. I would expect $40 per wheel or more landed.
That points to the suggestion of alternate wheels.
Note that 700c will require the pads to be lowered 4mm.
The wider selection of 700c tires, probable "hook" bead rims that also provide a wide range of tires...
You see where that is going.

An alternate would be to systematically unwind the existing spokes, 1/2 turn at a time, and oil up the spokes.
I often tear down wheels and do that if even one spoke feels frozen, makes any later adjustments - no problem.
Cleaning is for sure easier when apart.

I like building wheels for my bikes. That is, using the same hub and rim if they are good enough, and replacing the original galvanized spokes. I am probably the oddball for this, but that is ok. My goto has been The Hub Store https://www.bikehubstore.com/ . They were recommended by someone here on BikeForums.

Consider Pillar and Sapin spokes as well as Wheelsmith and DT.

By the way, I sometimes spend a little more, and go for double butted spokes. This may seem odd since only one of my frames is double butted tubing but I'm willing to go for double butted spokes.

I was looking at our own @Dan Burkhart YouTube video's and saw that he had a video on powder coating spokes. That is another way to go if you are so inclined. Not really C & V, but interesting.

Discolored spokes are fine as long as they are still holding up. I will +1 the advice to simply go around the rim and bust all of the nipples loose, replacing any that are rounded over, and then true the wheels and give them a good stress-relief, Jobst Brandt style. (Part of the reason for stress-relieving is to identify any marginal spokes by breaking them.)

https://yarchive.net/bike/stress_relieve.html

I haven't measured the spokes but I am using a 14 ga spoke wrench on them. 'Scuse my ignorance..

If you're going to pay for new spokes, it's only a couple bucks more to get the best. In my opinion, the best are triple-butted. Here's why:Triple-butted (and single-butted) spokes solve one of the great problems of wheel design: Since spokes use rolled, not cut threads, the outside diameter of the threads is larger than the base diameter of the spoke wire. Since the holes in the hub flanges must be large enough for the threads to fit through, the holes, in turn, are larger than the wire requires. This is undesirable, because a tight match between the spoke diameter at the elbow and the diameter of the flange hole is crucial to resisting fatigue-related breakage.

Since triple-butted spokes are thicker at the head end than at the thread end, they may be used with hubs that have holes just large enough to pass the thick wire at the head end. And they are thinner in the middle, which some say makes them more likely to stretch there, rather than passing the stresses on to the comparatively less-resilient rim, elbow, or threads.

Even on my weight-weenie builds, I'll use triple-butted spokes. A 32-spoke wheelset will weigh about 50-100g more (shared over two wheels) if you use triple-butted (depending on brand and whatnot). Is that worth sacrificing the elegance of the triple-butted spoke?

Bottom line: If I'm paying full-price for spokes, I go for triple-butted. If I can find spokes in the right length at a cut-rate, I'll take whatever. In a front wheel, this is doubly so, since symmetry makes them so strong. As always, a good build matters more than what spokes you use. Thus, the best spokes may be the ones you already have. Squirt some WD-40 or your favorite penetrating lube into the sticky nipples and they'll probably free right up!

Thanks for the link!!!

Classic Lightweights has info on wheels for 1945 to 60 that suggests 15/17 SWG (1.8/1.4 mm) spokes.

I've bought spokes here a couple years ago and they were the best price I could find. They've gone up- from $0.25 then to $0.45 now, plus $0.12 for nipples - but still not too bad at $20.52 per 36 spoke wheel - for Sapim 14ga stainless. https://www.wheelbuildingparts.com/p...t-gauge-spoke/

Thats not too bad a price for a nicely laced wheel. Do my research now, gather my parts and have a good project for next winter so I can have enough time to screw it up and recover before spring..

are your rims steel or aluminum?

If they are steel, would either find a replacement wheel set in with aluminum rims or rebuild with stainless spokes and new rims

reason way better braking

All this talk about spokes. I'd like to see the Dawes... Galaxy perhaps?

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1c2796c364.jpg
yes, one of the common yellow imports. Paint is in bad shape and spokes are worse. But rims are alloy and I'm slowly upgrading things.

Those look like Weinmann Alesa 210 rims, from the little bulges at each spoke hole.

Measure the old spokes and check ebay, used to be much better pickings but still not bad in odder lengths which an old 27", 36h?, box section rim will have. Built a pair of wheels last month, and paid 36.00 plus tax for 2 wheels, stainless butted wheelsmith. For an old rider I wouldn't worry about butting or fancy, just whatever is stainless, name brand, and the right length.

The actual reason a thinner (butted) spoke is mechanically superior is the amplitude of stress fluctuation in the spoke, not to mention the in the rim and hub at the spoke interface (as the wheel rotates under load) is reduced. This increases the number of rotations these components can statistically withstand before fatigue failure can be expected. Obviously the number of cycles to failure is different for the rim, spoke and hub, and is highly variable for each component as well due to the stochastic nature of metal fatigue.

Thanks for the picture. That is a good looking bike @Swamp Yankee. I think if it were mine, and keeping in mind how original it is, I would leave the original galvanized spokes. I can't see rust from here. I see some white ashy stuff that that sometimes happens with galvanizing. I would clean them with grey ScotchBrite. I also think the paint is pretty good and just needs some touch ups. It even looks close to Rustoleum Sunburst Yellow. Then again, I think all yellow bikes look like Sunburst Yellow.

I've had good results from these guys when I need spokes. https://sunnyspokes.com/

Having said that old spokes can be cleaned up and re-used quite easily if they are undamaged. Oil and corrosion can be removed from spokes using Simple Green and then Evapo-rust, and generally the nipples will come out nicely with a long bath in Simple Green. The clean parts that you get as a result will reassemble nicely, and when you use spoke prep and take your time the end result is a nice wheel-set!

Wheel building is an art form and to have a proper feel for it takes some practice, but you do not have to be a rocket surgeon to build or repair bicycle wheels!

Thanx! I was thinking along the same lines of keeping things vintage and simple. It's not a real high end bike. I've tried cleaning them a bit in situ and they're pretty rough surfaced. I'm thinking it might be a fun winter project.
Someone else has suggested signal yellow is a good match for the Galaxy yellow. I plan on trying that soon. A previous owner had used a more pale yellow for touchup and it looks like the bikes paint is faded in patches. If it doesn't match I may try to custom match it.