Your local bike shop(that claims to be wheel building pros) should stock spoke head washers. If not, they can order them from United bicycle tool/supply in Ashland, Oregon. I have used them with great success on SA hubs-keep in mind that the washers will shorten the length of the spoke by one or two mm. Properly laced and tensioned, You should never break another spoke.
Robert St.Cyr Sacramento
>From: "cmontgomery" <cmontgomery15@cox.net>
>To: "ClassicRendezvous" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
>Subject: [CR]Sturmey Hub Spoke breakage
>Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 17:07:50 -0700
>
> Broke a spoke, at the head, on my TF, about 6 months after it was
>built up. Commuted, with 20 pound loads, and I'm a load. Did a
>saddlebagged motel tour and an overnight camptour on dirt. Seems like
>this should not have happened on a reasonably fresh wheel like this.
>I've got fixed hubs with tougher miles on them almost 2 decades old.
>Something's awry. I figured maybe it was a fluke spoke. Or maybe because
>it was built with straight guage instead of double-butted. Then Doug, my
>wheel building guy, suggested it might be those thin steel flanges
>cutting into spokes made for thicker alloy hub flanges. Now there's an
>interesting thought. Were spokes made differently 70 years ago? Anybody
>else experience a spoke break like this on a Sturmey hub?
>
>Craig Montgomery in Tucson-about to go test this thing on another motel
>tour.