You are reading a single comment by @Kimmo and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
It's a shame that Shimano proliferated so many different wheel designs with zillions of subtly different spares
Simple reason why I rarely order Shimano wheels apart from the budget stuff.
If I'm building customer wheels? Brass. Brass Brass Brass. Lubricated at build, and re-tensioned after some use to get them to spec again. Anecdotal, but daily workload related, I've had less issues with Brass than any other mating material.
DT's Pro lock Is good. Mavic's UST and R-Sys system in theory is amazing, but if I cant get spokes and nipples, it can do one.
Chak
@Kimmo
Thread title changed from something like 'Think twice before buying Hunt wheels', to 'Alloy spoke nipples'.
I've definitely come across crumbling ally nipples on all sorts of wheels; I've wondered if exposure to seaside air is a factor (no road salting happens anywhere near me, but that would certainly do it too).
I haven't seen Shimano's beefy oversized ally nipples crumble though; I think the reason is probably twofold - firstly the surface area to mass ratio is much smaller, but probably the main thing is that the standard nipple's dimensions were specified with brass in mind (or perhaps even steel; they do seem a bit light-on for brass).
Given that it's not too hard to round off a brass nipple, making ally ones the same size is asking for trouble. A bit of fatigue, a tiny amount of corrosion, game over. Shimano may have overcooked theirs though; they're so big it doesn't seem as if lightness could have been the point - maybe it was just about ending the rounding problem and being able to do them in colours (although I think they've only ever done them in silver and red).
Mavic's huge splined ones which are captive on a fat ally spoke and which thread into the rim don't crumble either... But those wheels seemed pretty dumb - what's the point of an aluminium spoke if it has to be at least three times the volume of a steel one? That can't be any lighter, and it certainly isn't aero. And, epic fail - on every pair of those I've come across, the nipples are all seized solid to the rim.
Someone else did splined ally nipples too, but they were the size of brass ones... was it DT? Anyway, those were also dumb; if the nipples seized, the tiny splines would just strip right off in a heartbeat.
The chunky Shimano ones are definitely the best ally nipples I've come across; you can break seized ones free without damaging them. This pretty much makes them the best nipples, period.
It's a shame that Shimano proliferated so many different wheel designs with zillions of subtly different spares (with consequently awful support for availability, and replacement rims completely unheard of), instead of settling on a particular standard which they could have had a go at establishing as a new modern equivalent of the old modular system - instead of 32h j-bend, 16/20 straight-pull, with their beefier nipples making for larger spoke holes in the rim. But this century, if you ding a rim, it's a whole new wheelset. Damn single-use proprietary wank.