Got my HT out the shed in a right caked up state the other day. Discovered a bust spoke on rear wheel. Spank Oozy Trail 345 27.5″. After removing tyre and giving the wheel a good clean, discovered the alu spoke nipples corroded, several split enough to have bits missing.

I contacted a local wheel builder and took it round for him to have a look at today and the first thing he said was he doesn’t work on straight pull. He basically listed all the reasons he doesn’t work with straight pull.

The serial number indicates they were built April 2018, so barely over two years old. I purchased in September that year so now outside the 2 year warrantee.

Corrosion of alu spoke nipples probably due to riding through sea water on beach and not thoroughly cleaning.

The wheelbuilder said even if he did fix the wheel, the bends in the spoke where they enter the spoke nipple means they’d just break again. He also suggested the 3 cross lacing pattern also contributes to the problems, as well as straight pull spokes twisting when tightened etc.

All of which left me feeling like I had a 27.5″ ring of scrap aluminium strapped to my backpack as I cycled back to work. Basically need some advice and suggestions on this. Should I find someone who will work on straight pull (any near-local suggestions, I’m in east-Kent) or would it be worth getting the rims rebuilt on some other hubs using j-spokes? The wheelset cost me ~ £400, the most expensive components on my hardtai, so really don’t want to see them scrapped. Rims in excellent condition.

I expect there’s a builder out there that will re-do your wheels but anticipate the cost of new spokes and nipples as the alloy will have galled on the spoke threads making re-using them impossible. Looks like the wheels are 32 spoke, so unless the rims have been drilled badly, they should be OK built 3x. Straight pull can be a pain to work with but not too difficult with the right tools.

You could probably do it yourself?

It’s not that hard if you take it steadily, and don’t mind redoing it if you get it wrong.

Since it’s just the nipples and a few spokes, you could remove the nipples that will still move and replace with brass ones, and the ones that are corroded on, cut through and replace.

You’ll need the tool for holding SP spokes.

Well I did buy the Roger Musson book a couple of years back but have barely read it, time, fear of making them worse, current lack of suitable workspace etc (shed by end of year yay!).

Wheelbuilder seemed more old school roadie orientated given his attitude to 32 spokes, straight pull spokes (especially non-aero straight pull), and 3 cross lacing pattern so wasn’t sure how much of a pinch of salt to take with his criticisms of those things. I hadn’t heard of 3x causing a problem before, but know from experience straight pull spokes are less abundant in workshops.

He tried his spoke key on some of the nipples and they crumbled. Surprised how well it’s held together considering.

Building with straightpull isn’t really any harder than proper spokes. it’s just finding the things that’s a pain. And some hubs have annoying overlap things so you can’t remove one spoke without first removing another, which is total bullshit. But generally, you shouldn’t be relying on the J of the spoke to stop twisting anyway- that’s a quick route to winding up your spokes.

OTOH, you could probably reuse some or most of yours. The outside of the nipple might be rotten but the inside probably isn’t as that’s not really exposed to the elements. Soak in penetrating oil or diesel, use a little heat- basically, treat every spoke like the damaged bolt that it is. And then undo with a spoke driver from the rim side.

You don’t need a huge success rate, because if you get enough loose, the wheel will relax and that starts to give you access to method number 2, which is, destroying nipples. Alu nipples being shite can be removed entirely from a spoke even when totally seized, as long as you can get it a bit out of the rim- crush in a vice, or even just molegrips can be enough. Basically, it’s a soft alu nut around a strong steel bolt.

It’s a faff obviously but it’s amazing what you can recover with a bit of effort.