BobBob said:
Great, hope i'm right, i'll stick with 10 Ga, tightened sufficiently. hope the steel isn't 304ss
I have a 42mm wide double walled rim which seems robust
10ga spokes probably won't break, but they'll go slack with every rotation because they have several times too much cross-section/not enough elastic stretch.
The highest recommended maximum tension I have seen for any bicycle rim is 140 kgf. That's not enough to keep 12ga spokes taut under load, let alone 10ga. Either the spokes unscrew constantly, or you glue the nipples in place and they don't unscrew, but the spokes do go slack constantly.
Remember for the purposes of your wheel's structure, a slack spoke is a missing spoke.
Regular 14ga spokes are too thick to allow most bicycle rims to carry the biggest loads they are capable of. They are a compromise that trades off some load capability in return for low cost, ease of building, and resistance to damage from foreign objects.
Using motorcycle spokes with a bicycle rim displays a fundamental misunderstanding about how wheels work. Spokes' are supportive; the strength of the wheel comes from the rim. Spoke tension doesn't increase significantly under normal riding loads. It decreases.
Ideally, spokes and rim are structurally balanced to match each other, but it's much better to have spokes that are too light for a heavy rim than the other way around. Putting too-thick spokes in a bicycle rim makes the wheel weaker and less capable than using the correct gauge or thinner. It also dramatically increases maintenance and risk of damage to the rim and hub.
