How Spokes Are Made.
Quality spokes are made from stainless steel wire which is rolled on a bias to straighten it out. The end is forged to put the ?button? on the hub end and it?s rolled to either double butt it or make it aerodynamic. Finally the threads are rolled on (not cut).
Most quality spoke makers use Sandvik stainless wire from Sweden. DT Swiss (Swiss), Sapim (Belgium) and Pillar (Taiwan) all use Sandvik wire. That being said, the wire is only one of the critical parts of making spokes. Two other critical issues are how the wire is rolled and also the finishing process used for making colored (black) spokes.
CN Spokes (Taiwan) was the premier spoke maker in Taiwan until about 10 years ago when their black spokes started breaking after about a year?s use (due to a problem with the finishing). Their failure to make good on it cost them the quality spoke market in Taiwan which was taken over by Pillar.
Pillar now makes spokes for both Mavic and Campy. I met the son of the owner (Eric Chen) after he had tried to set up production of low end spokes in China (he gave up because there was no profit in making spokes so inexpensively). His mission, as he saw it 10 years ago, was to make quality spokes in Taiwan and he has largely succeeded.
The fact that Taiwan and China have now become the main quality wheel sources (now including DT Swiss, Campy, Fulcrum, and Mavic for some of their models) was a main reason Pillar had the opportunity to develop that part of the business.
Thanks for reading ? John Neugent.
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