Just got my 9/10 gauge spokes with brass nipples. Compared to the 12 gauge these things are massive, which is what I want because I had no problem cracking the elbows off of the 11/12 gauge.
I had enough of spokes breaking, and it already ruined two of my prowheel rims because of it. Once you pop 5 or more spokes at one time you will bend the rim and it will never be true again.
I am very happy with the quality and the brass nipples fit the prowheel rim perfectly. The one issue that concerns me is I will have to enlarge the holes on my cromotor about .4 mm.
This is a small amount, but the cromotor holes already look pretty close to the edge. I am kind of worried that instead of the spokes breaking the flange will break by the spokes pulling through. I just don't know if this could happen. I ran my finger over the edge of the flange on my old cromotor and I could feel the steal starting to actually push out a little over some holes.
I wonder if I could weld them stronger? I know I can redrill holes but how do I chamfer the holes on the inside of the hub?
The spokes are 9/10 gauge and the 10 gauge part just about fits through the cromotor hole. If I had to do it again I would order 10 gauge straight spokes, and only because I worry about enlarging the hole any on the cromotor. Although the 9 gauge is such a tiny amount bigger than the 10 gauge, I am kind of happy to have the elbows as strong as I can get them.
I am so happy to have these larger gauge spokes, breaking spokes has been a nightmare for me. I have already broken 5 or more spokes about six times since I got my raptor 1000 miles ago.
While 12 gauge spokes will work, and I've been riding with 12 gauge spokes recently, they will catastrophically fail if you get a reasonably hard hit, like I did landing in a hole in a park when I was trying to be careful. Broke 14 spokes with that hit and warped my new $100 dollar rim. 11/12 gauge spokes are also not strong enough, the 11 gauge elbows will crack with the right hits, however 11/12 gauge spokes I only break about 5 or 6 at a time and not 14. Almost always the hits that crack spokes will be hitting a sharp corner like a curb, stair, or a sharp edge coming up to a paved foot path. You can do 6 foot jumps and that won't break the spokes, go figure.
The other issues I had with the 12 gauge spokes is that sometimes the spoke will pull through the nipple. Depending on the spoke manufacture either the nipple threads was ruined or the spoke threads. These 10 gauge threads are more coarse threaded. I hope these threads are a lot stronger also.
If I happen to crack the elbows off of these 9/10 gauge spokes than I honestly have to give up. These elbows look massive. My recommendation is forget 12 gauge or 11/12 gauge, and order straight 10 gauge with brass nipples that won't rust. They should just fit in the cromotor holes with a little filing.
12 gauge spoke next to 9/10 gauge spoke. The longer nipple are the 10 gauge brass nipples. Smaller nipple is steal.