Off to FoD later and my back wheel seems to have been knocked out of shape a bit this morning from my morning Ashton Court ride.

As i’ve had 50/50 good/bad results with a spoke key i’m a bit apprehensive to true it before going in case it explodes and renders my weekend a waste of money. Any way of cutting a corner for it to last the weekends trip or is it leap of faith time?

It’s not a black art really, just tighten the opposite side nipples to the way the rim is out of true, as they tighten, possibly start slackenning the ‘ding’ side nipples as they could be tightening and stopping the rim from straigtening.
The hardest thing to remember is the way to turn the key to tighten the nipple.

Give it a go 😉

Also, remember to remove the tyre, tube and rim tape, and apply a drop of lube to the thread of the nipple before starting. And to only do 1/4 turn at a time. Best to make a large mug of tea or coffee and take your time.

And de-stress the spokes before riding it. The spokes may be wound up.

Here we go buddy, have a look at this:

American guy truing a wheel.

Good luck,

APF

NO! Do not lube the nipples of your spokes!!! They will work lose over time if you do, most people apply thread locker to nipples, lube will not ease a locking compound and will be ineffective at beast and, at worst, encourage movement and loss of tension when riding.

That video above, and the other linked, are a good resource, much clearer and less ambiguous than some text. Good luck and enjoy your ride 🙂

Rob
bigrobracing.co.uk

was that on the lower NBW section?

NO! Do not lube the nipples of your spokes!!! They will work lose over time if you do

Not true. I always lube nipples when building a wheel and don’t have any problems. Build it tight enough with even tension and they won’t loosen. You’ll have problems winding up your spokes during final trueing if you don’t lube the nipples.

most people apply thread locker to nipples

Well, I don’t have any numbers but I’d be happy to bet most people don’t.

Thanks for the advice all. I straightened it out in about 5 mins! I think the “ping” of an overzealous turn of the key is always in the back of my mind with truing.

Had a great time on the FoD trails, off back there next month for a weekend again. Good stuff, cheers all.

That ‘ping’ is usually a spoke destressing, but as an extra check, squeeze each sides parallel spoke together quite hard after each truing ‘lap’ as this should stop any individual spokes from ‘pinging’. I’m also in the lube the spoke nipples gang too 😉

I meant the ping of a spoke flying off!

I’m in the greasing my own nipples gang. 😆

lube,yes. thread lock,no.Good enough for Musson,good enough for me.

You’ll have problems winding up your spokes during final trueing if you don’t lube the nipples.

Not true. Just as saying that lubing them means they’ll come loose. I build them dry and then use a drop of superglue on each one. Never had an issue.

I lube the spoke threads and also put a small drop of oil on the shoulder of the nipple where it contacts the rim eyelet. In my experience the pinging comes from spokes untwisting themselves when they’ve been tensioned and the spoke has been left twisted.
A spoke nipple shouldn’t unscrew itself as there isn’t any turning moment to turn it, if a spoke comes loose it’s probably more likely that the head wasn’t properly bedded into the hub flange in the first place.