Bit of advice/pick of the collective brain please.

I’ve got a set of bonty tubless rims (currently with tubes in), that in the past 18months I’ve had to replace about 9-10 nipples on, they seem to ping/crack at random times. I’m not an abusive rider, the rims themselves show no signs of heavy impact, but I’m getting bored of replacing them one at a time, but don’t fancy my chances of sorting them all out myself.

So do I…

a: Have a go and hope for the best

b: Find a decent LBS who’ll do it for me (££??)

c: Find some replacements in the January Sales and have them as spares/practice wheels.

Bearing in mind that if I get an LBS to do it, I’ll probably end up with a full hub service/freehub too.

Cheers

alloy nipples?

replace them with brass. I’d strip the wheel down and replace every nipple.

Hard to say – do you really feel you couldn’t rebuild them?

What state are bearings & freehub in?

As you say what the LBS would charge is key also.

Yeah, alloy nips 🙁

I’ve never tried to do more than one/two at a time so far, so don’t know if I could/couldn’t do a whole wheel… would I need a proper jig?

Wheels are due a service, freehub seems fine, but was just thinking ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’!

Cheers

You’d effectively be re-building it – plenty online guides, don’t be daunted…though if you’re not confident about servicing the hubs yourself…?

Otherwise I think it’s about LBS costs vs. life expectancy of the wheels vs. new/equivalent wheel costs

Sounds like there’s been some corrosion of the eyelets. This can score alu nipples and create stress risers when the wheels are trued.

You can, as others have said, move to brass nipples, which are a little more robust, or stick with alu nipples and get new rims.

I know which I’d be doing.

A guestimate cost for replacing the nipples and rebuilding the wheel should be around £20-30. Plus service costs. You may be able to pick up a set of something off ebay for a reasonable price?

alloy nipples?

replace them with brass. I’d strip the wheel down and replace every nipple.

+1 🙂