Wheelbuilding / Wheel Building / Wheel build help

DT Swiss 511DBs

Yep or another Aileron?

Maybe the Stans Grail? Not quite as deep as the Aeliron but as light.
The 511DB is pretty damn light for a rim that depth though, so...

No, fuck it. The wheels are cursed. If I replace enough of them, they might come good.

I don't want light weight, it's not the 80s.

Durability > Aero > Price > Weight is basically the priority order I'm working in.

DT Swiss 511DB

Fo sho

You're supposed to say "Enve". Sheesh, read between the lines people!

Enve

Are you an investment banker?

No... I only lose my own money.

Help.

I recently put a new rim (DT Swiss R460) on my Hope Pro 2 EVO front disc hub and laced it 32 spoke 3 cross. This was my 8th wheel, the other 7 ran great until retired or are still in use. This wheel was tensioned, trued and stress-relieved numerous times by grabbing side-by-side parallel sets of spokes and squeezing forcefully. During the build I had lubed the spoke threads with oil and I built the wheel so the disc side tension was ca 21 on the Park Tool meter and the drive side ca 16 (from memory). The wheel ran nice and true and was well dished.

It has now done ca 500 miles and the spokes retensioned after ca 100 miles. Today I went to ride it and found some non-drive side spokes very loose - could turn the nipples by hand - yet the wheel ran true. How can I stop this loosening? If I add much more tension than I had at the initial build I'll exceed the DT Swiss max recommended tension. Is this maximum tension on any side or the average, ie the non-drive side is much lower so does this mean the drive-side tension can safely exceed the maximum.

Can I use thread locker if the spoke threads were lubed at the build, I suspect not. But if so which is recommended?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Are the leading spokes heads-in on both sides?

I always get confused by leading, pulling etc. The wheel was laced as indicated by Shimano:

NDS spokes and vibration gets mentioned as a thing contributing to spokes unwinding and spoke prep or old school linseed oil as a solution

Annoyingly I considered linseed oil before the build but didn't buy any. Can either of these or anything else be applied to built wheels especially ones with lubed spoke threads?

That depends on the lube you used. If grease then probably not, if oil or chainlube etc, then probably :)
Always use linseed oil, the cheaper the better.

btw there is a thread lock that works even in the presence of a little oil. It's the medium kind, usually blue...

The 511 makes a nice stiff wheel. I've recently built a 20h front with the rim braked 511, intended for windy day duathlon use this winter. But its also going to live on the Paddy Wagon when I get the rear built.

A 23mm Conti GP4000 comes up to 25.6mm and handles cross or gusty winds really well. I can't comment on durability as I've only done 150km on it but it's a stiff rim which was flat and round out the box and the wheel hasn't needed any re-truieng after some pothole bashing. There no sign of the weld joint area, either visually or when trueing, on the brake track, so you would never find it with a disc rim.

Alloy prolock Squorx nipples and reinforcement washers are supplied. The nipples thread on quite a long way, so there's plenty of thread through the seat which should stop any breakages. Here's a DT 14mm brass nipple and 15mm squorx both fully threaded onto a spoke.

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Ta. Do those Squorx nipples need a special spoke tool?

There's a special tool that would be handy for building up the wheel from the bead side but it's not essential. Once the nipples are on the spokes, a standard spoke wrench works fine for tensioning on the exposed square drive.

For the build up, I pushed the torx head into a piece of thin PVC tubing which enabled me to get the nipples through the rim and started. Or you could screw a spoke into the torx side a couple of threads to get it positioned.

Woohoo. After a two week wait for Swinntertons to send them out, replacement nipples have arrived to replace the ones which went astray in the post. Shame they're black brass ones and I've already built the front wheel with silver alloy ones.

Nice.

Do I have to use special spokes or is it just the nipples that are funky?

Any idea what size spoke tool?

Any 2mm spokes should be good.
Being prolock, don't oil the threads as the locking compound acts as a lube whilst building.

DT red handle spoke wrench. Or Park tools 3-way would fit the square drive :-)

Cheers, I'll see if I can find a 'mostly plastic' spoke key to suit if I go with this rim, just for the race, the build will be done by @scherrit hopefully. Hmm, maybe I should get that spare 808 built up... :P

Thanks @Simba and @Skülly. I used cheep chain oil that was in the shed.

I thought the blue Loctites required a clean thread but I note the data sheet for 243 states it withstands minor oil contamination. I'm not sure if dipping the threads in oil before use is minor contamination.

Would Loctite 243 be a good one to use and can it be used on assembled threads or do I need to relace the wheel? I wonder if it's breaking torque is a bit high.

I'm definitely using linseed oil next time.

If it was me, I would loosen the entire nds, then completely unscrew one nipple at a time, wipe the threads on the spoke (if necessary) dip in linseed oil and then put back in.
Your DS is up to tention, so no need to do anything on that, just tighten the nds until the wheel is correctly dished and it will have the correct tension.

I've never built a wheel with linseed oil (I normally brush on some copper grease, and rarely have a problem), but after all this talk, think I might give it a go.
What's so special about it? Does it 'dry' to leave some sort of magical sticky nipple-gripping residue?