Competition Cycle Services Twist-Resist - Left handed builder - Use tool in the right hand

Competition Cycles Services Miscellaneous Spoke Tools

• Prevents spoke wind-up

Spoke wind up, twisting from end to end as the nipple is turned, is a serious menace to wheel building; blurring truing corrections and damaging a spoke at its weak points. Everyone deserves to understand the reasons why and how to stop it.

Why do spokes twist?
The main reason is friction between nipple and spoke. You turn the nipple but does it advance on the threads or twist the spoke? With aluminum nipples, the friction coefficient is high (compared to brass, the traditional nipple material). Even with lubrication, the spoke still wants to twist.

Light spokes compound the problem. The torsional rigidity of a spoke varies with the 4th power of its diameter. That means small diameter changes make for huge differences in resistance to twisting. For example, a thin butted spoke may have a diameter of 1.5 mm. This is close to half the cross sectional area of a 14 ga spoke (1.77 vs. 3.14 sq mm). The thinner spoke will be 3X more torsionally flexible.

Under good conditions, spoke windup is not an obstacle because thread friction is normally quite low, only 2-4 in-lbs. Not enough torque to twist a spoke. However, lack of lube, corrosion, and aluminum nipples can create substantial thread friction.