Update: yes, spokes were too short. 2mm longer on each side and lacing was a dawdle.
I had a bit of a struggle with the first wheel I built and am now wondering if I should rebuild it with longer spokes, too. That one ended up with some exposed spoke thread at the nipples after final tensioning. This now seems like a potential problem to me.
It’s a problem if the spoke threads don’t go up past the shoulder of the nipple.
I have it and use it on Sapim nips. Works just fine.
I have this one, too. I prefer the DT ever so slightly.
Great. Let me stoke the wallet fire.
That’s a lot of thread. Are they tensioned?
Yup
Too much thread
Is the end of the spoke even with or just proud of the top of the nipple?
the nipples will break pretty quickly. ideal is ending up somewhere in the slot (if it’s a classic style nip
Not even, not proud, somewhat recessed
Like Jake said, you should rebuild it or expect broken nipples.
it’s interesting, in the case of a typical bolted joint, the bulk of the tension is taken up by the first six or seven threads. So I think that in this case, some combination of the spoke, it’s self stretching, and maybe the first few threads of the nipple itself stretching that the load is transferred to the fat part of the nipple. But that is 100% armchair conjecture. All I know is if the spokes don’t make it to the fat part, the nipples tend to break at the transition between the square part and the thick part
Yea, without the spoke running up through it, the soft brass of the nipple can’t hold the weight of tension and will eventually crack at the spot where the nipple gets wide.
Order new spokes, save the old ones and you have the germ of a spoke hoard!
Is this a blessing masquerading as curse or vise versa?
You decide!
much of my spoke horde ultimately ends up being turned into bent pokey things. Occasionally, I will horde and actually save if they seem like they will be a useful size again.
Could you just get longer nipples and keep the same spokes?
Doesn’t really solve the problem of needing to rebuild the wheel.
I guess you wouldn’t need to re lace, but it’s still a lot of work for a kludge.
beware – most longer nipples have the same actual threaded portion, they just have like a longer neck, part of which is unthreaded. also it still wouldn’t get the spoke through to the meat of the nipple. if you don’t make it past the shoulder, you’re liable to crack nipples around the shoulder
Right. The shoulder would still be unsupported. The spoke needs to go all the way through.
Yeah, gonna rebuild. Running into the same issues with my PUB rims, too. Gonna tear down all three wheels I’ve laced so far and start over. It’s OK, I expected the learning curve to be steep and painful.
It’s exactly this conversation that’s making me hesitate about building a rope spoke wheelset. Stakes are a lil higher when each spoke/yarn piece is $8.
I guess I know to add a couple mm for LB rim ERD calc, but still, yikes
