Radish_legs

I built this wheel myself (first time) several months ago. A friend told me I should have loctited the nipples. But I never read anyone suggesting that. I didn't put on any compound other than some lubricating oil (which I had read somewhere was a good idea).

Any thoughts about why the nipple came off and how I should attend to adding any kind of compound to the nipples? And how to prevent this from happening without completely rebuilding the wheel? (i.e. checking spoke tension from time to time?)

DiabloScott

Loctite no, lube yes, SpokePrep even better... the spoke threads, not the nipples.

If the wheel was completely built and tensioned before the nipple came out, it probably just vibrated loose.
With new wheels you have to watch for nipple issues for a while - you probably could've spotted this before it became a problem.

Possibles:

1. This particular nipple wasn't ever tightened properly and you got the wheel true somehow skipping this one... or you had a twisted spoke that untwisted.
2. Thread size was a little off - it happens.
3. Some kind of thread damage.
4. The nipple actually broke off and you have two nipple pieces inside your rim.

pdlamb

I can hardly believe you basically lost a spoke and didn't notice it, unless it was a non-drive side spoke and the entire wheel is badly undertensioned. (As Sheldon Brown mentioned, linseed oil on NDS spokes will reduce problems there.)

Suggest you double-check all the spokes' tension. People who've built a lot of wheels may poo-poo tensiometers, but you're a good example of why they're useful.

As to getting the nipple out of the rim, good luck! It can some out the same way it went in, but it'll take a fair bit of shaking to make that happen. It shouldn't do any damage (except to your mind) if you let it rattle around inside for a while.

fronesis

I'd echo DiabloScott's reply.

Either there was something defective about this nipple or the thread of the spoke it attached to, or you got something a little off with your build – such as too little tension on that spoke, serious spoke wind-up, etc. My best guess would be not enough stress relieving in the build. If you don't do stress relief beforehand, then riding the wheel will perform that function, and things will shift around.

I'm guessing you built with a high spoke count, otherwise I would have expected the wheel to have come out of true before the nipple came off (or broke).

When I build a new wheelset I always try to do MORE stress relieving than I think is necessary. I also make sure to put the wheel back on the stand after 100, 200, 300 miles, just to make sure something hasn't moved around. For the first half dozen wheelsets I built, I often had to make a couple of tiny adjustments after a couple of hundred miles. For the last half dozen, I haven't had to touch the wheels for thousands of miles.

Radish_legs

I did use a tensionmeter in the build.

But you're right, I never really checked it after. Kind of like, "it's functioning, so it must be okay."

I think the wheel is still true even missing the one spoke. I'll take it apart soon and see what's going on.