Symox

Yesterday I was riding and my bike was dead silent. Today, about half way through a 30 mile ride I developed a rotational creaking sound that was coming from the rear wheel.

On inspection I found the nipple/rim interface would make the sound when I grabbed some of the adjacent spokes. It only did this with the tire inflated. I am using Mavic Open Pro rims with Sapim polyax brass nipples and Sapim Race spokes.

I put chain wax lube in the rim eyelet/nipple interface (NOT the nipple to spoke interface) and the bike is silent again. Is this a normal occurrence?

The wheel is perfectly true (or as perfect as I'm gonna get it) so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a spoke unscrewing (plus the tensions read normal)

I did a search here and found that people recommend some grease in the eyelets.

cxwrench

Yes, sometimes a little lube is needed there. WL would be my absolute last choice due to my long lasting hatred of the product but it'll do.

Andrew R Stewart 

Not unheard of (bad pun) at all. Al nips can be worse but all it takes is some movement between the nip and rim hole. Corrosion, grime, low spoke tension contribute. Lube is the usual short term fix. Andy

Symox

what don’t you like about WL? I only use it for single speed chains and apparently nipples

Andrew R Stewart 

Waxes are a solid and thus when scrapped off by the rubbing of moving parts wax won't reflow back and recoat the now bare surfaces. This is a big reason why most will feel the need to reapply wax far more frequently then a wet/oil based lube needs. In time this frequent reapplication and the scraping aside of that wax has it's own form of build up. (And the story I was told about Clean Streak's creation was to clean off this waxy build up from pulley wheels and such). Wax does a poor job at reducing rust. The only good reason to consider wax as a lube is that being a solid it tends to not retain the grit that can be trapped by a wet lube. So if you ride in a dusty and dry area waxing can be a good choice. But far more of riders are where rain happens (and some where snow and salted roads are present during the winters). Andy

Symox

Great points. I removed the wax lube and used a tiny bit of Park polylube grease
Dead quite and the grease hopefully won't wash off

J.Higgins 

Well said, Andy. I ran the gamut with wax lubes. Not trying to turn this into another best-chain-lube-thread, I tried everything I ever saw or heard about. Now my preference is Mobil 1 ATF. Works good. Stays clean. Wipes clean. Easily reapplied, and we're back on the road in no time.

In keeping with the gist of the thread, OP: I have a needlepoint oiler for squeaky nipples. One drop of any light oil does the trick. Its also good for derailleur pulleys, etc.

pdlamb

Is the long term fix to tension the spokes correctly, or is something more needed?

Andrew R Stewart 

Yes, but. In most wheels good tension levels provide enough force to keep the nipples stable and well seated. However there are cases when this might not be enough or hard to attain. Rimes with no eyelet, having bare Al for the nipple seat, tend to have more friction between the rim and nipple so during the build up (or later retensioning) the nipple can round off. Al nipples and/or sloppy spoke wrenches, increase this possibility. Grime/grit can work its way into the nipple seat and wear at it. Corrosion can do the same.

On the rear wheel of a steeply dished set up the LH spoke tensions can be rather low, even when the wheel is well built. A rider's riding style, the loads the wheel sees (especially the side to side forces) and the conditions the bike is used in can all overcome even well built wheels after enough miles.

I will say that all this is not really an issue, WRT wheel noises, most of the time as most riders never suffer from this. The many millions of production built wheels seem to do just fine for many miles with no undo noises. It is the uncommon situation when spoke related noises are present. One proof of this is to look at how few threads here are about noisy wheels, due to nipple noise. Very few threads exist that I have seen over the years I've been on this forum. But saying this won't make the one or two bikes that do have nipple noises any quieter I suspect if the OP were to use a different wheel there's a strong chance that there would be no noises from those nipples.

Some of us consider wheels, or at least rims and spokes, to be consumables. Parts like cables and such that wear out over the miles and for best performance/function are due replacement periodically. This is the thought that was the standard when I started doing bike stuff back in the 1970s. I attribute the growth of the "component wheel", and their high cost associated with their marketing claims of "fast" that have so many riders believing that the wheels are suppose to be a constant, always be the same as the day they got them. I disagree with this view and I see this belief cause our customers grieve nearly daily during the repair season. But this is a topic for a different thread. Andy

adipe

very important to have some grease that resists being squeezed out where the nipples press on the eyelets.

a waxy bolt thread lubricant is what's best - if not something you mix. in order to flow where it's needed some volatile solvent would be needed. best to have this done before building the wheel and avoid washing the bike/wheels with anything that might wash that wax off from there.

the lubricant needs to resist oxidation; any base oil - including wax - is vulnerable to oxidation so there needs to be antioxidant additives mixed in and also some tackifiers to help the whole thing stay put.

rims are vulnerable to corrosion, eyelets or not. stress corrosion, galvanic corrosion... very important to have the right thing there, take care of the wheels before creaking occurs.