nipples – mtbboy1993

I bought used wheels, had them since the summer of 2021, some nipples were quite worn, but used the wheels for a while, but after straightening several times some nipples were completely rounded, when it was time to change the tire and tape the rim I saw that several spokes cracked and there was terrible corrosion.

Yes I used a tubeless setup, with gorilla tape, Tune One Shot sealant, but I don’t know if that affected it. But One Shot is supposed to not have the nasty stuff, so I don’t know if it corrodes the nipples.

I rode in the winter too, so there was probably some snow and water with road salt. but the problems did not come until the autumn 2022. So lousy spokes for my use. As the spokes were quite worn from before, I didn’t cover them in grease, but there is a method you can use, but messy and a lot of work. but I upgraded to the brass nipples, to see how they work.

But one was rounded under the nipple swap with the DT Swiss T handle tool, others had were slightly different in size, were tighter, I used the Park Tool spoke wrench. So I’m disappointed with DT Swiss’s nipples. The brass nipples are probably better, but still disappointing. But I am very happy with Sapim brass nipples, used them for many years, both winter and summer, stone chips, a lot of straightening. and is still in good condition, despite using them in the winter without covering them in grease, they held up well, so I stopped using grease.The grease thing was something I had to do on the Bontrager wheels, it helped to reduce corrosion both on the nipples and rim, but still eventually happen, maybe i did not do it often enouhg, but those nipples were horrible, so I was not surprised when the DT Swiss Alu nipples failed too.