go 14 or 15g spokes

[Jon Innes]

Hi all,

I'm about to order me up a set of Mavic 217 wheels. I'm debating getting
them built with 14g vs 15g spokes. How much stronger would this be? I
noticed that many bikes come with the 15g spokes and I know that 217 wheels
are pretty strong. I'm not racing these, and I weigh about 170lbs and do
some pretty aggressive off road stuff. I'm not really good at truing rims
and would like to go as strong as possible without turning my bike into a
anchor! Is it still possible to go more that 32 spokes per wheel these
days using an XT hub? Is that a better option than 14g spokes?

Any advice?
TIA

Jon Innes

[Peter James]

This is an interesting question. I have a set of wheels that I built in
the UK about 15 years ago, using what were then the standard butted spokes,
namely 15g/17g. I have had no problem with these wheels (they are used for
touring, including gravel roads, and I am about 185 lb). When I recently
needed to build a wheel I found that the only butted spokes available were
14/16 (or 2.0/1.6mm). No problem with these wheels either.
--
Peter James
Ottawa, Ontario