Weight Weenies

Hi all,

Some wheels (2 so far) I built using the CX-Ray came back with a Broken Spoke. for me it is new news and a very bad one.

I remember reading hear about CX-Ray not being as good as they used to be.
Some people said they broke often.

So my question is:
Aerolite or to stay with the CX-Ray?

Peled

Hi,

Best thing to do is find out first why the spokes broke in the first place.

Ciao,

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adrien from rouesartisanales.com uses inly aerolite spokes...
there was already this same topic...
search for it and you'll see adriens comments

Some years ago, when I bought my Tune Olympic Gold wheelset I talked to a tune guy at their Eurobike booth. He told me, that they will only use DT Aerolite spokes, from then on. They also had too many wheels coming back.

I just purchased a new set of Edge Composites wheels with a PowerTap SLC+ and a DT Swiss Hubs from wheelbuilder.com. He did the wheels for seven national Olympic teams. He uses both Sapim CX-Ray and DT-Aerolite. I chose the Sapim CX-Ray.

It's horses for courses really. I know a few builders who'll only use DT Swiss spokes with DT Swiss hubs. I think this all came from the fact that in 2005 DT Swiss altered the distance between the spoke head and right-angle bend which was lengthened to accommodate the wider hub flanges on the new DT Swiss hubs. As a result several builders had new DT Swiss spokes breaking on some wheels and not on others despite using same hubs, rims and spokes. Turned out it was the new spokes breaking. How true this is I don't know, but you still hear some of the old-school builders saying this even today.

Best to ask a builder who has built with your hubs and what spokes he would use perhaps?

peled wrote:Aerolite or to stay with the CX-Ray?

In the US at least we had a rash of Sapim spokes with a poor black finish last year, plus supply problems (probably related). The year before that (2007) seemed to be when some random breakages came up.

Aerolite spokes are fine, but I doubt they are any better than CX-Rays. All manufacturers seem to have issues from time to time... I know DT and Wheelsmith have in the past. In the US, Aerolites cost more and also no one is supplying them in smaller quantities than 20, so you either plan on stocking a lot of them, or cut your own.

another vote here for DT Aerolites over Sapims. I went to the trouble of relieving a rear wheel of 24 Sapims and replaced them with DTs. They seem less brittle.

I find the Sapims to be of inconsistent quality. They are not all precise. The width of the bladed part varies for example. I had one that was too wide to fit through the flange hole of the very same CXray spoke it was replacing. If you hold a set of CXrays there are visible differences. I just don't trust them any more.

The only ones I've replaced have all been black CX rays?
15-20 last year?
I've never had a broken silver CX ray, so I presume it's about the black coating treatment.

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legs 11 wrote:I've never had a broken silver CX ray, so I presume it's about the black coating treatment.

No. I was referring to the plain stainless ones.