Spoke

A spoked wheel on display at The National Museum of Iran, in Tehran. The wheel is dated to the late 2nd millennium BC and was excavated at Choqa Zanbil.

The remains of a pair of cartwheels with metal axle assembly.

An Ox-wagon in Aliwal North, Eastern Cape. Note the three missing spokes and the metal tyre.

A spoke is one of several rods radiating from the center of a wheel (the hub where the axle connects), connecting the hub with the round traction surface.

The term originally meant the portions of a log which one had split lengthwise into four or six sections. The radial members of a wagon wheel were made by carving a spoke (from a log) into their finished shape. Eventually, the term spoke was applied to the finished product of the wheelwright's work.

Other websites

These pages are in German:

• Hub dynamo assembly instructions with spoke length formula and a nice diagram
• Online spoke length calculator, uses slightly different measures than the above formula