Choosing Spokes: Plain, Butted, Bladed, and the Cross-Section Hierarchy

What the three spoke types are for, how a workshop ranks them by cross-section, and which side gets the heavier one — with links to the original posts.

Spoke choice is usually made on brand and colour, but the things that actually matter are the cross-section profile and where you put each one. Here's the framework one workshop uses, with the source links.

1. The three types

• Plain (straight-gauge) — the same diameter end to end (e.g. a 2.0 mm DT Champion). The heaviest and stiffest as a tension member.
• Butted — drawn thinner in the middle (e.g. a 2.0–1.8–2.0 mm DT Competition). Saves weight and adds a little elasticity to resist fatigue, while keeping strong full-diameter ends.
• Bladed (aero) — flattened into a blade (e.g. a Sapim CX-Ray). Lowest aerodynamic drag, and the flat resists wind-up while tensioning — but needs slotted hubs or a holder.

Sources: Nomu Lab #554, glossary

2. Ranking spokes by cross-section

The workshop thinks about spokes in terms of relative cross-section — effectively a butted or bladed spoke's equivalent solid diameter, which tracks both its weight and its behaviour as a tension member. Taking a plain Champion as 100:

These figures are what let the workshop mix spokes precisely between the two sides of a rear wheel — see the asymmetric wheel guide, where "half-Competition" means a Competition drive side and a CX-Ray non-drive side.

Source: Nomu Lab #554 — On different-gauge builds

3. The heavier spoke goes on the drive side

Source: Nomu Lab #786 — When the drive side is the thinner spoke

4. A sensible default

For most riders and most wheels, a double-butted spoke like Competition or Sapim Race is the right all-round choice: lighter and more fatigue-resistant than plain-gauge, with strong ends. Step up to plain Champion when you want maximum stiffness and durability; step to a bladed spoke when aerodynamics and weight lead. Don't over-weight the grams, though — spoke weight matters far less than the build, as the wheel weight guide explains. Bladed spokes also demand care during truing — hold the blade so it doesn't wind up.

Sources: Nomu Lab #554, #786

5. Cutting to length

Off-the-shelf spokes come in fixed lengths, but a workshop with a spoke cutter isn't bound to them: the shop cuts every plain-gauge spoke from 315 mm Champion stock, which gives any length in roughly 0.5 mm steps — so a calculation that lands on, say, 299.5 mm can simply be cut to it. One caveat: the thread length rolled onto a spoke varies between makers by up to a couple of threads, which interacts with nipple choice — see the nipple guide, and get the target length from the spoke length deep dive.

Source: Nomu Lab #7000 — On spoke length