Spoke nipple unscrewed.

Ed said:

For the first time in my experience a spoke nipple unscrewed itself.
What was the cause and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?
This was on a radially laced wheel.

Cause is spoke going loose. Rider weight, spoking pattern, wear of the
spoke hole, vibration all contribute.

You can build a wheel with new spokes and new hub with 3 cross lacing,
proper tension, spoke alignment, and stress relieving.

If you want to use the same hub again I suggest using spoke head
washers, the same radial pattern, and even high tension. I never suggest
radial spoking, but once the hub has been laced that way it should
continue ...to minimize the chances of breaking the flange.

--

daveornee said:

Cause is spoke going loose. Rider weight, spoking pattern, wear of the
spoke hole, vibration all contribute.
You can build a wheel with new spokes and new hub with 3 cross lacing,
proper tension, spoke alignment, and stress relieving.
If you want to use the same hub again I suggest using spoke head
washers, the same radial pattern, and even high tension. I never suggest
radial spoking, but once the hub has been laced that way it should
continue ...to minimize the chances of breaking the flange.

If this is a new wheel it could also be that you didn't get a good match
between the nipple and spoke threads. I've seen shops get a little
sloppy about where they put back the extras so you might have a 14g
nipple on a 15g spoke. That would probably come off (not unscrew) pretty
quickly... unlikely to be the cause if this wheel has seen a lot of use.

--

Quoted message said:

If this is a new wheel it could also be that you didn't get a good
match between the nipple and spoke threads. I've seen shops get a
little
sloppy about where they put back the extras so you might have a 14g
nipple on a 15g spoke. That would probably come off (not unscrew)
pretty quickly... unlikely to be the cause if this wheel has seen a
lot of use.

14g nips on 15g spokes get proper tension, then go PING as the nip flies
off, in my experience.

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Ed said:

For the first time in my experience a spoke nipple unscrewed itself. What was
the cause and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?

This was on a radially laced wheel.

Radial spokes have a higher tendency to unscrew, as you've found. A bit
of Loctite will stop it, as will higher spoke tension (only if the wheel
is a bit slack already).

ed-<< For the first time in my experience a spoke nipple unscrewed itself.
What was
the cause and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?

This was on a radially laced wheel. >><BR><BR>

Either the tension of the entire wheel was too low of ya wacked the rim, pushed
a section in, via a dent, and the tension at that place was too low...

Peter Chisholm
Vecchio's Bicicletteria
1833 Pearl St.
Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535
http://www.vecchios.com
"Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

On 22 May 2004 12:46:41 GMT, [email hidden] (Qui si parla

Campagnolo ) may have said:

ed-<< For the first time in my experience a spoke nipple unscrewed itself.
What was
the cause and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?

This was on a radially laced wheel. >><BR><BR>

Either the tension of the entire wheel was too low of ya wacked the rim, pushed
a section in, via a dent, and the tension at that place was too low...

Or maybe a cracked Mavic?

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail.
Typoes are not a bug, they're a feature.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

For the first time in my experience a spoke nipple unscrewed itself. What

was

Quoted message said:

the cause and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?
This was on a radially laced wheel.

That is usually a sign of a spoke that was not tight enough.
--------------
Alex

Someone said:

Quoted message said:

For the first time in my experience a spoke nipple unscrewed itself. What
was the cause and what can I do to prevent it from happening again?
This was on a radially laced wheel.

Alex Rodriguez said:

That is usually a sign of a spoke that was not tight enough.

Not necessarily, when a radially spoked wheel is involved. Radially
spoked wheels tend to be prone to this unless tension is very high,
likely for two reasons:

1. The spokes aren't interlaced, since they don't cross, so there's no
crossing spoke to take up the slack when the wheel load loosens the
bottom spoke.

B. The nipples come straight out of the rim holes, without the usual
sideward bend they get on a typical semi-tangent wheel. This makes the
nipples easier to turn.

I generally build radial wheels with dry spokes, and sometimes resort to
a wicking threadlocker.

Sheldon "Better Living Through Chemistry" Brown
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