wheel rebuild – are the spokes supposed to protrude through the nipples?

I’ve had a front wheel rebuilt after snapping a spoke. Last time it happened on the rear wheel, they kept going one after the other, so thought it worth getting the whole wheel done.
I picked the wheel up without really giving it much of a look over, as I was at the start of a long drive and already running late.
I looked at the wheel yesterday and realised that the spokes are protruding back into the rim past the spoke nipples by quite a long way. It’s a non tubeless rim and on some of the spokes there is no protrusion, on some it protrudes a bit and on a few the end of the spoke is virtually level with the bed of the rim.

I have never seen this before and am not sure whether it might cause punctures once I put a tube in (with rim tape, of course). Or whether it’s OK to be like that? Just looks a bit weird. Almost like some of the spokes are a bit long.
Apart from that it’s all good.

Don’t wanna take it back to the shop asking why it’s been done like that, if it’s normal practice…

Sounds like the spokes are a little bit too long?

I wouldn’t consider that to be normal.

Probably okay in use with a decent rim tape but I would check with the shop.

Take it back

Hmmm. That’s what I thought. Will give them a ring about it.

Would have taken some pics, but wrote this from work…

Not normal.

I’ve done it myself in the past when it was much cheaper to buy a pack of 100 spokes and roll some extra thread onto some of them rather than buy three different lengths individually. Those ended up almost level with the rim bed and were absolutely fine. One of the first sets of wheels I ever built and I still have them now over 20 years later.

However seeing as you’ve paid for a professional job here, there’s no excuse for it. If they’re protruding by varying ammounts it suggestes they’ve not just got the calc slightly wrong and used the next length up, they’ve used a mixture of lengths !

The wheel has natural lateral movement, so spokes compress and release. The spokes being too long may result in reoccurring punctures.

“However seeing as you’ve paid for a professional job here, there’s no excuse for it. If they’re protruding by varying ammounts it suggestes they’ve not just got the calc slightly wrong and used the next length up, they’ve used a mixture of lengths !”

or the rim was like a buckled neep when they removed the original spokes…..

Practical things to check for.
Is the spoke going to sit proud of the rim and damage a tube?
Is there enough thread on the spoke to get sufficient tension or has it bottomed out in the nipple?

Is there a pattern to which protrude and which don’t? If it’s every other one, I wouldn’t worry too much. There’s normally a difference between drive side and non. If it’s random, it could be that they did t have enough spokes of the ideal length so used the nearest.

Give them a call, if it’s legit, they shouldn’t object to a polite question.
Pluck each spoke on one side of the wheel. They should give the same note. If you’re not musical, try down loading a tuning fork type app.

Onzadog…

Yeah, some of the spokes are very close to standing proud.
I think there is a pattern to it. I did wonder if it was something to do with DS/NDS spokes.

I think that the spokes are all tensioned evenly, but will double check that by tinging them. Good point about the threads bottoming out before getting correct tension.

Will post some pics this evening.

Its not a simple error of using NDS spokes on the DS and DS on the NDS?

Whilst not excusable it is possible.

Out of interest what was the rim and hub?

letmetalktomark – Member
Its not a simple error of using NDS spokes on the DS and DS on the NDS?

Whilst not excusable it is possible.

Out of interest what was the rim and hub?

Erm….dunno. Maybe.

It’s a Specialized wheel; Specialized hub and DT Swiss 420SL rim. It’s the standard wheel that came with my 2010 Stumpy FSR.

Anyhoo, here’s some pics….

Spoke not protruding:

Spoke protruding a bit:

Spoke virtually flush with rim bed:

Someone earlier mentioned whether it’s something to do with drive side or non drive side….
Erm, didn’t think about it at the time, but it’s a front wheel.

The protruding/non protruding seems to be alternating; so every other spoke. The protruding spokes go to the disc side of the wheel.

That’s the sort of thing i’d do at home when I haven’t got any spare spokes of the right length.

I wouldn’t expect that from proper shop wheelbuild.

Drive side/non drive side question still applies on a front wheel if you’re using discs. The disc side normally needs spokes that are a couple of mm shorter. Looking at that, it could be that all the spokes were the same length. My concern is that if you don’t bring the tension up evenly you get different tension between disc side pushing spokes and disc side pulling spokes. That might explain why some of the protruders do so more than others. Are the very long ones every fourth spoke? If so, I’d say it suggests a badly built wheel.

That’s shoddy. It must have creaked like a bastard when they were winding it up.

Oh dear! Quite a unanimous verdict,then!

onzadog…can’t say for certain that there is a certain pattern to which ones are longer. I thought there was a pattern, but then it didn’t seem too carry on around. The variation in length is perhaps to small to be sure.
I did wonder if the disc side ones should be shorter. I reckon, like you say, they have used the same spokes on both sides. Hmmm. I think a different person did this wheel to my back wheel, when i had that done. Both done at the same place.

Threaded section on a spoke is generally 8mm long, so ask yourself (and the shop)how much thread is actually engaged on some of those spokes, and how strong/weak that joint will be. Unless you have a dented rim, i’d expect the spokes to come in within a mm. or so of being flush with the base of the nipple’s slot, and certainly wouldn’t be letting it leave my workshop like that.

I would expect to see that on a wheel which has had its spokes replaced, or been rebuilt on an old rim, but not on a new build.

It looks like they may have got the DVR side and NDRV side spokes the wrong way around as some are too short and some too long. I’d be more worried about the ones that are too short. You should be using the whole thread for strength.

Shoddy
Take back

stumpy01’s first pic is dodgy – the spoke isn’t filling the (soft brass) nipple and this will fail in time. The second pic looks untidy, but shouldn’t be a problem. In the third pic the protruding spoke will puncture the tube.

Someone needs to go back to wheelbuilding school.