Spoke Nipple Breakage

[AllenH]

Hi all,

I'm new to MTB and loving it, I used to do Enduro riding with petrol power and this feels like home just a whole lot more fun (and alot more hard work ????) .

I got myself this Momsen AL229 from Cash Converters for R7k, it seemed in good nick and my new riding mate who helped me get into the sport said it was a decent deal... So here we are.

I've ridden the thing a total of 1 time on a track, Big Red Barn in Irene - 12km and the thing now has 3 broken spoke nipples, again. When I bought it, it had 1 broken spoke nipple in the front which I was told was no big deal, a full service and truing of what I assume was only the front wheel at a bike Shop in PTA East for about R1200 with +/- R450 in pedals and stuff I asked for, it was all hunky dory and the bike felt good. I pull the bike out of the garage now to load on my bakkie  for a lekker afternoon ride and find 2 more spoke nipples in front and 1 back are again broken off.

I'm so bummed as I was assured this thing was good to go after the service, and at this point I could have bought a much newer bike for R9K from a bike shop in some equally cool colours.

Pic attached of what the spoke end looks like, when I got the bike back they wheels looked pretty true, on the day of the ride they looked a bit wobbly but I was told it was the sealant in the tire that was causing that.

[TC KIECK]

Those are alloy nipples. you'll need to get them rebuilt with brass nipples. 

Alloy nipples corrodes overtime and starts to crack.

Sealant don't get there. The rim will be sealed over the spoke holes with tape.  

Should not be to expensive to get sorted

Edited October 31, 2021 by topcat

[David Marshall]

Those nipples will all need to be replaced and possibly the spokes as well if it is not viable to remove the nipples.  The person replacing the nipple should have warned you that others would likely go.  The corrosion is galvanic caused by the two dissimilar metals (steel and aluminium) and the acid (water/mud/sealant etc).  If the damage is limited to one wheel leave the other until it causes problems.  Brass nipples will deteriorate in the same way but over a longer time - usually longer than the wheel life - and will tend to crumble rather than seize onto the spokes. 

If you can remove the nipples you are looking at the cost of a wheelbuild and the nipples (couple of hundred Rand).  With a set of spokes it will be well over R1000.

[Barry]

23 hours ago, AllenH said:

Hi all,

I'm new to MTB and loving it, I used to do Enduro riding with petrol power and this feels like home just a whole lot more fun (and alot more hard work ????) .

I got myself this Momsen AL229 from Cash Converters for R7k, it seemed in good nick and my new riding mate who helped me get into the sport said it was a decent deal... So here we are.

I've ridden the thing a total of 1 time on a track, Big Red Barn in Irene - 12km and the thing now has 3 broken spoke nipples, again. When I bought it, it had 1 broken spoke nipple in the front which I was told was no big deal, a full service and truing of what I assume was only the front wheel at a bike Shop in PTA East for about R1200 with +/- R450 in pedals and stuff I asked for, it was all hunky dory and the bike felt good. I pull the bike out of the garage now to load on my bakkie  for a lekker afternoon ride and find 2 more spoke nipples in front and 1 back are again broken off.

I'm so bummed as I was assured this thing was good to go after the service, and at this point I could have bought a much newer bike for R9K from a bike shop in some equally cool colours.

Pic attached of what the spoke end looks like, when I got the bike back they wheels looked pretty true, on the day of the ride they looked a bit wobbly but I was told it was the sealant in the tire that was causing that.

Was this bike at Cash Converters mall@reds? Is so i had a look and that bike is in bad shape. The lockout is missing and fork was not working and drivetrain was worn.

[AllenH]

57 minutes ago, Barry said:

Was this bike at Cash Converters mall@reds? Is so i had a look and that bike is in bad shape. The lockout is missing and fork was not working and drivetrain was worn.

Yes,

Shock is sorted with the service and the lockout handle is R60 odd.

 

I'm seriously thinking of taking it back before dropping more cash into it, not sure if I can take it back at all though. I don't want to go too far into the rabbit hole.

 

 

[Barry]

4 minutes ago, AllenH said:

Yes,

Shock is sorted with the service and the lockout handle is R60 odd.

 

I'm seriously thinking of taking it back before dropping more cash into it, not sure if I can take it back at all though. I don't want to go too far into the rabbit hole.

 

 

The bike was with them for maybe 6 months couldn't sell so it was marked dow a few times.

Not sure if you take it back. Mayby someone with CPA knowlage can advise. 

Or just byte the bullet and sort out all the problems.

[Barry]

I think 7k was a bit of a raw deal for the bike realy not worth that kind of money.

 

[AllenH]

Definitely wasn't worth R8500,

I couldn't find anything similar online to compare the price to when I bought it and the info I got was that the bike was a good deal and I could get most of my money back when I bought something new in a year or two.

I've spent R1200 on it since I bought it and was assured that it was good to go afterwards... That was for a full service, swapping the brakes L & R to be correct way around and then bleeding them, apparently stripping and greasing throughout (the cassette looked new when I got it back so it's possible), pumping the shock in front to my fat ass weight, some cheap R160 pedals and R250 odd for handles that add on to ends of the handlebar, fixing the wheels along with new goop or something and replacing the spoke nipples that were broken, if they had told me then that the nipples should all be done, especially because they were refilling the goop I would have said go ahead, but they didn't... So I will take that up with them on Wednesday.

 

I'm not sure if I can even return it since there is nothing technically wrong with it, I'll get a report from the Bike shop and a Quote and go to the CC store I bought it from maybe, see what they say.

[Martin PJ]

Same thing happening on my wife's bike. Bit of an irritation. Planning at some point to replace all the nipples with some from rapide.co.za. i have all the tools. I noticed when I trued up the wheel, the spokes are very tight. I think this does make it worse.

[AllenH]

5 minutes ago, Martin PJ said:

Same thing happening on my wife's bike. Bit of an irritation. Planning at some point to replace all the nipples with some from rapide.co.za. i have all the tools. I noticed when I trued up the wheel, the spokes are very tight. I think this does make it worse.

Their prices are quite reasonable, thinking of sending the rims to them instead of the LBS here that didn't pick up the problem in the first place.

[Hairy]

55 minutes ago, AllenH said:

Their prices are quite reasonable, thinking of sending the rims to them instead of the LBS here that didn't pick up the problem in the first place.

Check what all you are spending with Rapide, you may just fall into free shipping, or be short a few rand to get free shipping, so you can buy something small and score.

Always exception service from Rapide!

[AllenH]

R500 to replace all nipples with Brass, I'm assuming that's all inclusive. So it seems the bike shop is making right?

 

I'm just going to take the knock on this and pop the Cash Converters and email with the report to see if I can recoup the moola.

[Reg Lizard]

I would suggest replacing the spokes as well seeing that they are in any event going to have to rebuild the wheel. I replaced my rear wheel's nipples with brass and now the spokes are breaking one by one. Aparently because they were tensioned before the nipples were replaced, so just do both and you will save yourself alot of fustration and money in the long run.

[Hairy]

I had a bike a good few years ago where  the rear wheel was breaking spokes on a regular basis.

Had the wheel rebuilt with new spokes and nipples by a really good wheel builder (Louis that used to work for Marks Workshop and prior to that Peter Alan Cycles). 
The ride feel was dramatically better afterwards and never broke a spoke or got the wheel out of true ever again after this.

[RobertWhitehead]

What I would do is to replace both wheels and nipples but not by stripping the whole wheel and then rebuilding it. I would replace one at a time but obviously all at once. This way you can klap a diy and then take it to the lbs for a true ????

[Reg Lizard]

If you tension the spokes incorrectly with your diy effort, you're right back where you started.