Recommend me a couple of things... please

Spokes...

32 x 281mm. On the edd calculator is 3 crosses mean the number of times a spoke crosses another one? This is what i have on my current wheel...

If the nearest stock size is 286mm then will the 5mm sit OK in the rim as its a Deep v or will this be a problem? Am thinking DT triple butted alpine 3 but the sizes are limited. Would 282 mm be perfect or do I need more room/allowance to play with?

Cheers

You really want the closest (within 2mm) spoke to the calculators recomendation. The problem is that altho there will be room for the spoke to poke up as it were, there won't be enough of the threads bitting together.

But, you can use longer nipples and *shorter *spokes to offset this.

If you want to keep costs down buy the ACI double butted from cyclebasket... obviously I don't know what type of riding you do / your weight but TBH I'd be supprised if you'd have a problem with them. I'm 12-13 st and commute daily though london's potholes on them laced 3x 32H without any problems.