Alloy Nipples - are these just rubbish?

buckmulligan

I'm sorting out my pain cave set up ready for the indoor training season and I've dug out an old Mavic CXP22 wheelset to use as a dedicated turbo wheel on my Kinetic Road Machine. Unfortunately it's had a hard life and it's a little bit egg-shaped with a region of about 3 or 4 spokes where it's ever-so-slightly out-of-round (maybe 2-3mm max). This wouldn't bother me on the road, but hearing the thump-thump-thump as the lump goes round on the turbo is rather annoying.

So I've tried to fix this myself with some limited success; I've reduced the bump down to 1-2 mm, but one of the spoke nipples in this region is seized solid so I can't adjust it as I'd like. It's just a bog-standard stock wheelset that came with aluminium nipples (now with a bit of visible corrosion it has to be said), but are these just generally accepted to be complete rubbish, like the stock headsets and BBs on most factory-made bikes these days? It seems like a bloody stupid idea to make spoke nipples out of aluminium, where they're obviously exposed to corrosion and liable to be rounded off at the first sight of a spoke key. Do I have any other options to solve this dilemma other than rebuilding the wheel with something like brass nipples?

Any help gratefully appreciated, because wheel building is certainly not my speciality!

DeVlaeminck

Yeah they are light but otherwise rubbish.

ugo.santalucia

Basically yes... they are rubbish

svetty

Have you tried using penetrating oil, a bit of warmth and then removing the rim tape and using a screwdriver in the slot?

step83

As above touch of oil may release them, if not its snip snip an new spokes with some brass nipples.