Wheel chat

I9? Wolf tooth? Chromag?

Best spoke prep method? Doing heavily butted spikes up front and regular butts in the rear. Forgot to get washers. Should I?

These are wtb kom i29 to dt350. Going to be used for trail riding. I don’t get sendy.

How do I figure out a good spoke tension?

Tarck has opinions on spoke prep that don’t involve the wheelsmith spoke prep product, but I always do that at the shop when I get my spokes.

I think washers look awesome but aren’t necessary unless you’re reusing a hub and will have the spokes leaving the holes at drastically different angles than the worn-in grooves.

As far as tension goes, I usually go by the maximum tension the rim manufacturer recommends. For a dished wheel, that means getting the higher-tension side (rear drive side, front disc side) to that tension and the other side to whatever tension it needs to be to get the wheel dished and true.

I’ve been using Rock N Roll nipple cream and Sapim locking nipples for a while now. Gives me all of it.

I now forgive rock n roll for making horrible chain lube.

I just use Teflon grease in a glue syringe. Works great. I’ve never ever been inclined to use washers.

I’m going to use linseed oil because I have it.

I use antiseize compound and Sapim secure lock nipples. Rim spec for the tension. Washers if the rim mfg recommends it.


Sup.
Laced and ready for the zen part.

1 Like

Best life hack is to buy the damn dt Swiss nipples that are pre lubed, suckers

I’ve always just rubbed some Phil grease on the spoke threads and never had a problem.

don’t grease spoke threads you galoots

if you paid extra for DT Prolock nipples you’ll destroy the threadlocker compound they’re pre-lined with (the Sapim version uses a deformed thread instead)

Linseed Oil is the old-world method, it dries/hardens nicely, has the right amount of hold, and is pretty easy to use

Anti-sieze compound is the good non-locking method, it’ll leave the copper/etc microparticles behind long after the grease runs out

DT SpokePrep is a special-purpose threadlocker that hardens in anaerobic conditions but I’ve found it kinda annoying to use process-wise. I know a few people that use straight purple loctite as prep, or add green loctite at the very end of a wheelbuild.

I’m curious about this Nipple Cream, might be cleaner to use than Linseed?

3 Likes

Yo. I just like the smell of linseed. Puts me right back in my college painting classes.

I expect it not to be the most performant nip lube

Why not? I’ve done it on every wheel I’ve built and never had a problem with any of them.

uh, beezwax
image

it’s not lubricant

it’s a drying oil, you’re using it for the same reasons as your painting classes

Charles at wright bros uses straight purp, and it works. I used linseed oil last time, and it also works. I bet that Rudy’s method also works fine. Just gotta have something on the threads.

Grease is okay, but anti seize compound is better.

I think Rusty is wondering about the why it is better.
Grease will eventually wash away and the anti-seize will leave some remnants on the threads and thus remain turnable down the line?

As per Fred’s quote in same reply.