I’ve madly decided to build a new rear wheel (my first) for my fatty and have ordered a Mulefut 80 rim.

Can someone with more experience guide me towards what nipple length I should be using and whether I need to use nipple washers or not (I assume yes or no to washers will affect required nipple length)?

Cheers

Go and spend £9 on Roger Musson’s brilliant pdf book. It has answers to all the questions.

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/

Happy fettling!

Does Roger cover that rim?

Your question sounds very specific to the rim. 12mm nipples are usually fine but if there’s a deeper well to the nipple shoulder then longer may be needed.

Washers only needed on light rims IME.

@cynic-al

Yes I am being a bit specific. The rim is flat bed so I was just going to buy 12mm nipples. Then I saw a few posts on mtbr about cracking around spoke holes in fat bike rims and the suggestion that washers should be used to spread load.

Just looking for a bit of guidance as to whether washers are actually necessary and if sh whether to go for 14mm nipples instead.

Edit, ignore.

Spoke washers can help on non-eyeletted single-wall rims like many fatbike rims – it helps spread the load better. I used some Sapim concave washers and nipples on a recent carbon fatbike wheel build. 12mm nipples will be fine – longer ones only really needed with deep-section rims.

@dovebiker

You’re a star, thanks very much.

Yes, if you are concerned, just use washers, they will help

Thanks for the replies everyone, much appreciated.

I have a set of fatbike wheels on Mulefut 80s. They were built up by the LBS wheel builder, no nipple washers, not had a problem. I would recommend brass nipples as they are less likely to seize at the nipple hole in the aluminum rim.

double post

Getting brass nipples. Heard too many stories of alloy nipples breaking.