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@citygent
Butted spokes are stronger for an intended spokes purpose.
Obviously with polo there are side impacts etc. rather than just additional torsional stress (which touring and MTB spokes are made for- sometimes even quadruple butting!). So Types' experience might go some way to disproving the old adage that butted spokes are stronger.
**ANYWAY: **I'm just here to let everyone know how I'm getting on with my wheelbuild which was a bit of an experiment in nipples.
Firstly, EX 819's (36h) are brilliant rims, I don't rock wheelcovers and have had more than 4 spoke-deaths (well, nip-deaths - more on that below) and the rim has gone max 3mm out of tru.
Frankly I'm amazed in the improvement over the rims I used before, which needed truing after every polo session whether there were spoke/nipples missing or not! (These were XC717 36h). This said they are a bit heavier despite the lack of a braking surface.
Okay, now the experimental bit. As I was going for stronger rims I thought maybe I could shave a few grams off with alloy nipples. This was largely done tongue-in-cheek as I got the nipples free, and I already know how terrible alloy nipples are from my road/velodrome bikes (they take all the joy out of building/truing a wheel, they often seize/bond to the spoke, etc...)
This time I thought I'd test out a Beagle theory discussed earlier on in this thread: Alloy nipples are sacrificial, which saves the spoke, and pulls on the rim less, leaving a straighter wheel behind afterwards...
The first bit is very much true, the spoke threads were fine after the nipple had died due to a fast shot, unscrewing the remaining of the nipple was easy-peasy. But this isn't really much of an advantage, here's why:
1: Obviously that shot will have gotten through and scored a goal, as the nipple just shears, allowing the ball to stay on the line it was on before it hit your wheel.
2: Also obviously: You still have an errant spoke hanging out which is a danger to the rest of your bike and your legs
3: So, is it easier to repair the wheel as the spoke is not snapped? NO. The spoke has had some serious trauma by the impact, and *even if you didn't *wrap it around a neighbouring spoke to carry on playing, it's still been bent, and is a bitch to get it back into a new nipple, even if the threads are perfect. I'd rather have to remove two broken bits of spoke than try to straighten out a used one and seat it in its nipple by pulling on it and swearing.
4: Has the rim fared better because of the sacrificial nipple? Hard to say. As you can probably tell from the opening paragraph of this super nerdy post, I put most of the rim strength down to the rim I chose, not how much bending took place from spokes being hit and pulling on the rim.
On top of all of this, it's two rainy rides into my new wheelset, and on re-tensioning the front after the halloween tourney this morning (discs need you to be ontop of your tension!) i found a nipple that's already begun to bond to its spoke.
So once again, all I have proved is that alloy nipples suck balls and you should never use them. Brass ftw.