I have damaged the flow and so want to replace it with an XM481.
The flow has an erd of 605mm and the XM481 has 601mm
Can I reuse the spokes or is 4mm difference just too much?
4mm is pushing it but all depends how long the spokes are. If they were on the shorter side (i.e. required length 280 with actual length of 278) then maybe but if on longer side then not.
As spokes are not that expensive I would just change them although see the appeal of being able to tape rim to new rim and move across to save time and I have done that before but the time saved is not really that much is it.
Wanted to flag: ERD is not spoke length, and depending on your hub and which wheel it is (F/ R), the spokes will be different lengths on each side. You may be able to reuse half of them (shift the longer side ones over to the shorter side on the new rim); but the best thing to do is to look at one of the free spoke calculators online. Several of them list specific hubs and rims, so you don't have to work out all the obscure measurements yourself; and then you can see what spoke lengths you probably have, and what you need.
thanks for the replies
looking at the DT swiss calculator
the flow has spoke length left 294 and right 292
and the XM481 will require left 292 and right 290
So each spoke will be 2mm longer
Personally for the cost of spokes I’d buy new ones. ACI double butted spokes aren’t that expensive from Cyclebasket and seem to do well for me. You’ll need to use new nipples anyway - normally DT Swiss rims come with alloy squorx and the PHR washers you need to build with.
That's probably going to be fine. Since your spokes are longer than the 481 recommendation, what I'd do is just eyeball the spokes in the nipples currently, see how far through they are. It's really pretty rare for a wheel to be built with the spokes at the limit, I'd bet 20 scottish pence it'll be fine. Though of course the dt squorx will be different from your current nipples, it's still a good indicator.
