Honestly, this front wheel is driving me mad!
Was it built with nipples with a finite lifespan, and now they are all breaking? Or is the wheel ‘true’ but essentially under massive stress on one side?

I’ve recently replaced 4 nipples in one go, then another the other day, now noted another is snapped. It’s not the spokes, they are fine, but the nipple shears off level with the wheel….

I think I need to get it fully rebuilt by a local pro? Is it common to need a full wheel rebuild after a few years?

DrP

Alloy nipples by any chance?

Alloy or brass nipples? Do you have detail on spokes and rims?

My guess is alloy nipples and a little too much tension.

They’re silver, not brass coloured, so suspect alloy.

It’s a hope pro 2 with dt swiss 5.1 rims, not sure of the spokes, but they are butted. Tbh, it’s been beasted around the alps a few times, and is used for all sorts here in the uk.

What’s a typical price of a rebuild with brass nipples going to be?.

DrP

Spokes are probably too short, not enough meat in the nipple. So to speak….

Loss grouping… Basically, every one of them is roughly equally worn, so the point one breaks is going to be close to the point where the next breaks.

I’d replace the nipples myself, easy job that, and then get someone better than me to do the tensioning- costs me a tenner last time. Brass obviously, as alloy nipples remove about 10g of weight and add about a ton of fail.

what do you use to clean your bike? I have heard from my favourite LBS that certain cleaning fluids seem to make alloy nipples a bit more brittle. I went through about 8 alloy nipples in about a month so they swapped them all out for brass ones and I never had a problem after. (about 2 years ago).

You run tubeless no? Why not just replace each one as it breaks? Cant be too difficult to whip the tyre off, pop in a new nipple, retrue and pop the tyre back on.

Look at it this way, you will only be going “tsk tsk” and having to do it 32 times? 😉

Most brass nipples are silver, if you know what I mean.

Aluminium.

Hush Andy……

Right – I’ve bought that wheel build e book, and will sort myself out with some brass nip nips and fix it myself.

I’m not looking forward to having to sort the ruddy tyre out though…..

DrP

Suspect there is a certain pitch lover guy with a broken leg and lots of time on his hands during the week that could rebuild it for you. 😉

I would but have a couple of pairs to do as it is.

Oh and if you want to borrow jig, nipple driver and tension guage let me know

aluminium alloy?

or pure aluminium?

I’m pretty sure that almost everyone knows that brass is an alloy right? but alu is commonly referred to as? ali?
glad you had to clear that up though, we were otherwise very confused.

apologies. the cider has made me stroppy and exceptionally anti-pedant this evening. I shall sign off now and sleep. I’m sure I will become less cantankerous overnight.

Brass nipples are pretty strong. I doubt they are brass. Techsmechs is right, it’s probably down to not enough thread in the nipple. Really you want the thread of the spoke to go to the top of the thread in the nipple, that way it’s helping to support the crown. Like the 3rd one here:

Unfortunately, this is difficult as it’s hard to get spokes in 1mm increments and spoke manufacturers seem to have reduce the thread depth on spokes which means you can’t use a slightly longer spoke any more.

Cheers Andy – think I’ll just use a fork leg for this, and see how I get on – if it becomes a frequent even then I might get a jig.
I’ve got myself a red spokey, and will hunt out some DT swiss brass nipples (12mm?) and simply switch the nipples over, then retrue.

DrP

aluminium + threads + exposure to water+road salt = corrosion.

corrosion + stress = stress corrosion cracking.

aluminium nipples are ace!