Originally Posted by
Mr. 66
Yes, I have a wheel with alloy nipples. I was having an issue with even tensioning the rear wheel on my Miyata, and that one blew. I'm going to have to strip the wheel down, check the hoop for quality. If the rim is still up to par I'll slap some brass ones on and rebuild. I'm thinking my rim is nearing the big recycling bin in the sky.
I bought a pair of lightweight Vuelta rims from Nashbar that had aluminum nipples. They were under $200 so I looked at them as being disposable. When the nipples started breaking (and they did), I couldn’t justify throwing them out. Everything else about the wheels was great. Did the brass nipple upgrade and they’ve been rock solid since.