Aluminium nipples

always_tyred

Does anyone use alu spoke nipples for xc bikes? Good idea? Bad idea? Totally inappropriate suicidal wheel build?

I ask because I just got a cross bike with 29er disc wheels and, through mainly road and occasional LIGHT off road use (nothing my 32h road wheels didn't handle perfectly happily) I've had about 8 spokes pull out and many of the remaining 28 spoke nipples were cracked. It was wishful thinking to carry on as long as I did to be honest.

I'm now having images of the whole wheel collapsing under braking forces so I'm having the wheels re-laced with brass nipples.

As a roadie, I always regarded aluminium nipples as a weight weenie thing to be avoided because of galvanic corrosion but I've not come across safety issues though, and I wondered if this was a build issue (overtensioning perhaps) or a bonkers choice of parts by the manufacturer.

supersonic

They tend to round easily too, so require a lot more care when built and truing. Plus the corrosion thing.

If it is durabilty you want, go for brass.

always_tyred

supersonic wrote:

They tend to round easily too, so require a lot more care when built and truing. Plus the corrosion thing.

If it is durabilty you want, go for brass.

but are they such a bad idea that no one in their right mind would build an off road wheel up with them? Or is it less clear cut? Its less clear cut for road wheels, but I've very little experience of off road/disc wheels.

I mean, something was very wrong with my wheels, and I suspect that the suppliers are well aware of this - in a Miss Marple like feat of deduction, I noted that, in response to me making a warrentee enquiry about spokes pulling out, possibly due to overtensioning, they volunteered the suggestion of re-lacing the wheels to replace the alu nipples with brass ones. Erm.... okay... so would this be a problem you have previously encountered then?

Sir HC

Manufacturers will save money where they can, so quite possibly they are using cheap aluminium nipples. The ones that DT sell will be better quality aluminium and thus cost more.

whyamihere

The only problem with them on the whole is that they can round off more easily when truing the wheel. The problem you're experiencing could have easily happened whatever the material: The nipples were cheap useless pieces of crap.

always_tyred

Sir HC wrote:

Manufacturers will save money where they can, so quite possibly they are using cheap aluminium nipples. The ones that DT sell will be better quality aluminium and thus cost more.

Mmm...... starting to make sense now....

supersonic

Always Tyred wrote:

supersonic wrote:

They tend to round easily too, so require a lot more care when built and truing. Plus the corrosion thing.

If it is durabilty you want, go for brass.

but are they such a bad idea that no one in their right mind would build an off road wheel up with them? Or is it less clear cut? Its less clear cut for road wheels, but I've very little experience of off road/disc wheels.

I mean, something was very wrong with my wheels, and I suspect that the suppliers are well aware of this - in a Miss Marple like feat of deduction, I noted that, in response to me making a warrentee enquiry about spokes pulling out, possibly due to overtensioning, they volunteered the suggestion of re-lacing the wheels to replace the alu nipples with brass ones. Erm.... okay... so would this be a problem you have previously encountered then?

They can work well if built correctly. Sounds like your wheel was badly built.

I have seen many many rounded out nipples, and siezed ones as I worked as a mechanic for a number of years.

Sir HC

supersonic wrote:

They can work well if built correctly. Sounds like your wheel was badly built.

I have seen many many rounded out nipples, and siezed ones as I worked as a mechanic for a number of years.

If they are cheap and nasty to start with, the spokes are bound to pull out, as the threads are failed. They'll use nice soft aluminium which is both cheap and easy to work with.