Just had a spoke tightened and my wheel trued and it seems a spoke has come loose again after just one ride. I presume its the same one but not certain.

Would loctite stop it from loosening or is this bad practice? Would a new spoke / nipple sort it? Or am I doomed and need to get the hub/rim rebuilt altogether?

I’m off on a bike holiday in a few weeks, so don’t want it coming loose every day.

An evenly tensioned wheel build will keep all the spokes tight. Just because it’s round, doesn’t mean it’s even.

The LBS trued the wheel and they’ve trued wheels for me before now with no issue. I’d think they know what they’re doing?

A quick wheel true is a very different job to rebuilding a wheel to even up the tension

I’ve heard pretty much every bike shop within a 20 mile radius brag about how they build the best wheels. Last one I had shop built came back with ten times the variance in spoke tension than I have in my builds (I do take considerably longer though)

I’ve seen this happen…
I’d replace the nipple, and check the eyelet to see if it’s loose or worn. Turning them so that the worn bit isn’t in line with where the spoke beds in can help as can a bit of bending with needle nosed pliers.

Ali nipple threads can wear/stretch, brass less so but can be misshapen. Some cheap spokes are not really round.
Use a tensimeter to get the tension even across the wheel, then use spoke freeze if you want to be sure. Loctite is OK but I prefer the DT spoke freeze, it gets into the thread better IMO.
Nylock nipples have a place too for hard working wheel sets I reckon.
Hope that helps

is your rim OK ? Check under the rim tape, I’ve had a crack under there cause this problem.

Alloy or brass nipple? Alloy ones can “stretch” a bit so if it is I’d try replacing it

That’s what I’m asking – am I looking at a full rebuild just to fix one spoke?

They’re Stan’s Crest rims, brass nipples…….Superstar wheels……

Took it to Green Machine in Horwich. I don’t really engage in any chat, so I don’t know if they claim to build the best wheels around, I just asked them to retension it and true it.

no, just replace spoke and then retension

Or …. use something called SPOKE-FREEZE.
Never used it meself but a wheelbuilding guru mate has had to recommend this once or twice when spokes are consistently working loose.
He is – before anyone starts – a VERY good builder but stating that “well built wheels never work loose” is absolute tosh …

(Dons tin hat…)

I’m going to go left field, but when I learnt to build wheels I was taught to lube every nipple, otherwise they will work loose. Try a drop of 3in1.

Know quite a lot of people who have issues with Stans rims unwinding – seems to be something to do with paint in the rim bed moving/lifting after initially binding during the build process, which leads to uneven tensions and then undoing itself.

I know one local builder uses a little Dremel tool to remove the paint in the spoke holes on Stans rims for exactly this reason – if they had eyelets, it would probably not be an issue.

I’m going to go left field, but when I learnt to build wheels I was taught to lube every nipple, otherwise they will work loose. Try a drop of 3in1.

Lubing the threads is so you can get a decent tension with fewer problems with spoke twist on the way. Lubing a spoke that’s already prone to loosening won’t help.

Lubing the threads is so you can get a decent tension with fewer problems with spoke twist on the way. Lubing a spoke that’s already prone to loosening won’t help.

Except that if the thread is unlubed it will build a twist tension in every time you tighten it, and hence unwind. which was kinda my point..