Wheel rebuild – Nipple washers??

Putting a new rim – DT Swiss 481 – on a wheel. Discovered after moving a few spokes across that the original wheel used nipple washers. Some of these are now inside the rim, and a pig to get out. Book I’m using suggests that they are not necessary. Any thoughts?

I used them on my last carbon build. The idea being that nipple turning on washer must be less harmful than nipple turning on carbon.

If you’re using the DT squorx nipples; I would use the washers (I greased mine too) as DT say you should. They are a bastard to get out, I do agree but they are great rims why not just build them as they should be?

IIRC you only use the washers with the squorx- if you use normal nipples you don’t need them. That might be rubbish though. Why we have spoke washers again in 2016 I don’t know…

Cheers. The problem as said above is that they are a bastard to get out. They are not squorx, but will try to reuse em.

I thought the PHR washers had to be used regardless of nipples. Anyways I used them on my 401 rim with standard brass nipples.

You have to use them on a 481 rim as they are kind of structural 😉 …. however your rim should have come with a bag of 36 new ones.

Why we have spoke washers again in 2016 I don’t know…

Spoke washers are different 🙂

Wish I’d bought 481 and not 401:(

To be fair, with XM and EX rims you get what you pay for, or rather they are all basically the same, just different widths and strengths. No one rim is better than another. If you didn’t need the width of a 481, then you saved a chunk of weight with a 401. Its swings and roundabouts.

The DT rims that come with the special PHR squorx nipples and washers should only be built with those, not normal nipples.

The nipples are designed to pivot to align with the spokes and the washers spread the load inside the rim , doing much the same job as a traditional eyelet.

Building them with normal nipples and no washers greatly increases the chance of. A nipple pulling through the rim and will result in a generally weaker, less durable build.

Madison stock packs of alloy and brass nipples as well as the washers, or talk to a shop like moonglu, who build with DT a lot and should have a stash of bits.