DT Swiss Competition 14|15|14 Gauge Spokes
The DT Swiss Competition is the spoke most hand-built wheels in the world are laced with, and there is a reason for it. The Competition is a double-butted spoke: 2.0mm at the elbow and the thread, thinned to 1.8mm through the middle to save weight and add a little compliance, cold-forged from DT's X5 chrome-nickel stainless steel with rolled threads. It builds a wheel that is lighter than a straight-gauge spoke allows and stronger than the weight suggests.
This page covers the DT Swiss Competition 14|15|14 Gauge Spokes. Cut to length for your rim and hub and built into a finished wheel in Georgia: that is the only way these spokes leave the shop.
Design and construction
Butting a spoke moves the strength to where it is needed. The elbow and the thread carry the stress concentrations, so the Competition keeps them at 2.0mm; the middle of the spoke sees only tension, so it can be drawn to 1.8mm. The thinner middle also stretches a little more under load, which lets the spoke share shock with its neighbours instead of the nipple or the rim taking it.
DT Swiss cold-forges the butting, which work-hardens the steel rather than machining it away, and rolls the threads so the grain stays intact. The X5 alloy uses chrome for rust resistance and nickel for strength. Competition spokes come in silver and black, in J-bend and straight-pull, in every length in half-millimetre steps.
The Competition comes from the factory in lengths from about 150mm to over 300mm in half-millimetre steps, in J-bend and straight-pull, silver and black. There is also a Competition Race at 2.0/1.6/2.0mm for lighter wheels and an Alpine III at 2.34/2.0/1.8mm for e-bikes and tandems, so the family covers almost every build we do.
How it rides
A wheel built on Competition spokes is the reference point most riders know without realising it. It is lighter than a Champion wheel, a touch more compliant over rough surfaces, and it holds tension for years. We use the Competition on road, gravel, cross-country, trail and enduro wheels, commuters and tandems; it is the all-purpose spoke.
For the lightest wheels DT's Aerolite, Aero Comp and Revolution are thinner still; for loaded touring and e-bikes the Champion or Alpine III are stiffer.
The compliance of a butted spoke is easy to overstate; you will not feel a Competition spoke flexing. What you will notice is that a Competition wheel keeps its tension through a season of hits, because the thin middle stretches slightly and springs back rather than the nipple unwinding, and that the wheel is a few dozen grams lighter than the same build on Champion spokes.
Specifications
| Gauge | 14/15/14G |
|---|---|
| Profile | Double-butted |
| Material | Stainless Steel |
| Spoke head | Jb14|15|14 |
| Finishes | silver, black |
This listing
This is the J-bend Competition, the gauge listed above straight gauge. A J-bend spoke has the elbow formed into the head and drops through a drilled flange, which is the older and far more common pattern. It fits almost any hub, replacements can be found in any decent shop anywhere in the world, and the elbow is the part that eventually fails - which is why it is seated properly and the wheel stress-relieved before it leaves us. If your hub has drilled flanges, this is the one you want.
Sizes, fit and compatibility
The DT Swiss Competition 14|15|14 Gauge Spokes is cut to length for your build; the configurator reads the rim's ERD and the hub's flange dimensions and works out the length. Competition spokes suit any J-bend hub and any rim with standard spoke holes, and the straight-pull Competition covers straight-pull hubs.
We pair Competition spokes with brass nipples on trail, gravel and everyday wheels and with DT Swiss alloy Prolock nipples on lighter builds.
What goes into a DT Swiss spoke
DT Swiss draw and forge their spokes in Biel, Switzerland, and they have filmed the whole process end to end - from the steel that arrives as raw material, through wire drawing and straightening, cold forging the butted mid-section, forming the head and rolling the thread, to flat-forging a bladed spoke and blackening the finish. If you have ever wondered why a good spoke costs what it does, the series below is the clearest answer anyone in the industry has published.
Some years ago a graduate student at Georgia Tech pulled five spokes to failure on a tensile tester, five samples of each, for Snyder Cycles. Snyder has since closed; we asked for permission to use the footage and were given it. It is worth more than a test we could run ourselves, because nobody in it was selling spokes. The averages line up like this: Sapim Race 303.15 kgf, Sapim Leader 299.37 kgf, DT Swiss Champion 289.80 kgf, DT Swiss Competition 276.95 kgf. The two pairs worth reading are the like-for-like ones. Among the plain-gauge 2.0 mm spokes, Sapim Leader averaged about 3% above DT Champion, and its weakest sample still pulled higher than DT's strongest. Among the double-butted spokes, Sapim Race averaged about 9% above DT Competition. Where they broke is as interesting as the number: the Race failed at the J-bend head, which is where a spoke is expected to go, while the Competition failed at the outer butting transition.
Treat it as what it is. One test, five pulls per spoke, measuring yield load on a straight pull in a machine rather than a laced wheel under a rider - and it does not capture fatigue life, which is what actually ends most spokes in service. It is also not new; it predates Snyder closing. But it is a real measurement, on real samples, by someone with nothing to sell, and it is part of why Sapim is what we reach for.
An independent spoke strength test
DT Swiss's videos
The manufacturing detail above comes from the maker. The choice of spoke for a given build is ours, and we will explain it if you ask.
Building it at ProWheelBuilder
DT Swiss makes the Competition spoke; ProWheelBuilder is an independent wheel builder in Georgia, not the manufacturer. We cut Competition spokes from the measured ERD of the rim in hand, lace the wheel by hand, bring it up in stages with a tension gauge, stress-relieve it and true it before it ships.
The configurator recommends a spoke gauge and count from your bike type and weight, and only shows spokes that fit the hub you choose. Butted spokes wind up a little under the nipple as tension rises, so we hold each spoke as we bring the wheel up and stress-relieve it twice before the final true.
Competition 14|15|14 Gauge Spokes questions
Should I take this in J-bend or straight-pull?
Whichever your hub takes - it is decided by the hub, not by preference. A J-bend spoke drops through a drilled flange and is what the large majority of hubs use, which also makes a replacement easy to find anywhere. If your hub holds the spoke head directly with no drilling, you need the straight-pull Competition, which is a separate listing.
What does 14/15/14 gauge mean?
The spoke is 14 gauge (2.0mm) at both ends and 15 gauge (1.8mm) in the middle: a double-butted spoke.
Competition or Sapim Race?
They are the same spec, 2.0/1.8/2.0mm double-butted stainless, and we build with both. Choose by color and availability; the wheel will ride the same.
Is the Competition strong enough for e-bikes?
For lighter e-bikes, yes. For heavy e-MTBs and cargo bikes we recommend the DT Swiss Alpine III or Champion 2.34mm.
Silver or black?
Cosmetic only. Both are the same X5 stainless steel; black is a coating.
Can I use Competition spokes on a carbon rim?
Yes. The Competition is the spoke most carbon rims are built with; we pair it with brass nipples on carbon rims because they are kinder to the rim bed over years of truing.
Do I choose the spoke length?
No. The configurator calculates the length from the rim's ERD and the hub's flange geometry; we cut and thread the spokes here.
Not sure? Email info@prowheelbuilder.com (fastest) or leave a voicemail on 470-253-0929 — you will be talking to the people who build the wheels.
