Between my riding buddy and I, we have a few older Easton Haven wheels (both carbon and alloy) in need of spoke replacements and truing. My understanding from some Easton tech videos is that they have a unique way of tensioning the rear wheels and used relatively high spoke tensions. These also use proprietary hubs, proprietary nipples and straight-pull spokes.
Anyone have any (local-ish to HRM preferably) recommendations of particular shops or individuals?
Thanks!
Velofix gets all my odd requests!
The Haven wheels use a straight pull spoke and a nipple that threads into the rim. Replacement spokes and nipples can be sourced from Easton/RF. The rear drive side spokes are laced at high tension, so to replace those spokes you have to detension all the spokes on the wheel, replace the spoke, tension the drive side spokes, then tension the non-drive side spokes. The wheel is then trued using the non-drive side spokes. They can be a little trickier than standard wheels, but if you go slow and watch your tensions it’s pretty straightforward. I can’t recall if Easton uses a proprietary spoke wrench with their nipples like Mavic and Shimano do. If I’m ever king of the world the first office I set up will be the Ministry of Bicycle and Coffee Standardization, because the only thing I hate more than a drawer full of proprietary tools is ordering a macchiato and getting a latte.
Edit: multiple broken spokes or cracked nipples on a wheel indicates fatigue failure. I’d relace the wheel with new spokes and nipples if that is happening.
Regular spoke wrench luckily. I have an old Mavic Deemax wheel with those weird Squorx nipples that require a weird spoke wrench.
No cracked nipples. Most of the broken spokes are the result of abuse in storage. I’m no wheel guy so I’d prefer to pay someone else to do the work. Pretty much anything else on the bike I’ll tackle without hesitation but wheels- ugh, my nemesis.