Columbia Chainless Spoke Advice

Picked up this 1905 girl's Columbia chainless at the Hershey flea market. I am excited because it looks good next to my 1899 men's Columbia chainless as they are in the same condition. Only problem is I need to respoke the back wheel. Does anybody know where I can get some of these spokes or is this something I am going to have to make on my own? Any advice would be great!

Ball end spokes are hard to find. You might have to buy another rim and hub hat already have them. You should ask on the Wheelmen site. I know someone repoped them about 25 years ago.

I personally haven't tried it but heard of some using Straight Pull Spokes and grinding down the head to fit the hub.

http://www.cambriabike.com/DT-Swiss...rm=100060453&gclid=CISztoK-u8gCFQEPaQodDFEOwg

Thanks for the advice. I'll check with some wheelmen friends and I found an old thread about making some ball end spokes here on the CABE. They don't need to be perfect as it will be more of a display bike than a rider. I do need some straight spokes too though for a Crawford tandem I am working on. Do you know of anywhere cheaper to get straight spokes? $4.95 per spoke is a little steep

Are you looking for new straight pull spokes or used ones for your Tandem ? i do have 27 straight pull spokes with nipples 11 7/8 tip to tip they are used.

Try Rick at Wheel Fanatyk .. ( http://www.wheelfanatyk.com ) He made some a few years back and his brother also is part of Wheelsmith spokes ( If I remember correctly ) http://www.wheelsmith.com

Here is one of the pages
http://www.wheelfanatyk.com/blog/some-spring-news/

Straight pull spokes up to 308mm

http://www.ebay.com/itm/72-Custom-l...ycle-spokes-/281804086959?hash=item419cd51eaf

Contact Mike Cates. They can be made.

Here is the process that I am in the middle of to make ball end spokes. Let me start the conversation with the fact that I have not yet built up a wheel with these spokes to determine their integrity. I am making these from original 1890's spokes as I don't want to do a restoration to the bike and new spokes would not look correct. The spokes that I need are 308mm in length. Here is the process:
Cut the head off the "j" to make the blank about 310mm.
Turn/file/sand the butted section of the spoke down to the .063/.060 dimension of the center of the spoke (make sure it fits into the slot in the hub.
Thread the spoke with a 1-72 die about 4-6 threads (depends on how much taper or point is on the end of the spoke).
Thread on a 1-72 nut, adjust to the proper length spoke, in my case 308mm.
Silver solder the nut in place.
Chuck spoke and file the solder round.
Dip the ball end of the spoke into a product like Permatex Rust Treatment to dull down the cleaned metal from the turning.

I believe that these will work for a display bike, but the strength of the threads and the solder are yet to be proven. I may be wrong and the nuts will all strip off during the wheel build.

Very nice! That seems reasonable. I'll give that a try this weekend and I'll post pictures if I make any progress