American Classic 350 Sprint

[Piki]

Hi !

Where in JHB I can buy SPOKE NIPPLES for American Classic 350 Sprint ?

[carlo_sg]

Do yourself a favour and get "regular" nipples.

 

The american classic nipples are aluminium and bond to the spokes and you are going to have endless issues with keeping your wheels true.

 

Rather go to a wheel builder and have him/her replace the nipples with something other than aluminium and you will have a great, reliable wheelset.

[Johan Bornman]

Carlo, it is not as easy as that. American Classic uses a proprietary nipple that requires a shorter spoke. Thus, Piki cannot just swap out, he'll have to replace all his spokes as well.

Piki, phone me tomorrow and I'll rummage through my nipple collection. I may have a few left. How many do you need?

0823086847

 

Oh, and BTW, they are expensive.

 

EDIT: Before the local village idiot gleefully corrects me, I think the AC system actually requires a longer spoke.....or was it shorter? Either way, it is a proprietary arrangement. Now, where did I put my Ginko Biloba?

 

Johan Bornman2009-03-16 12:00:21

[Eugene]

Do yourself a favour and get "regular" nipples.

 

The american classic nipples are aluminium and bond to the spokes and you are going to have endless issues with keeping your wheels true.

 

Rather go to a wheel builder and have him/her replace the nipples with something other than aluminium and you will have a great' date=' reliable wheelset.

[/quote']

 

never had any problems with the trueness of my Am Class wheels. This is despite a 95kg (then) body weight and being rear ended by a bakkie.

 

I must admit, the rear hub did break, but the wheels remained true.

[Johan Bornman]

Do yourself a favour and get "regular" nipples.

 

The american classic nipples are aluminium and bond to the spokes and you are going to have endless issues with keeping your wheels true.

 

Rather go to a wheel builder and have him/her replace the nipples with something other than aluminium and you will have a great' date=' reliable wheelset.

[/quote']

 

never had any problems with the trueness of my Am Class wheels. This is despite a 95kg (then) body weight and being rear ended by a bakkie.

 

I must admit, the rear hub did break, but the wheels remained true.

 

This type of thing is my bread and butter.

 

 

I see many wheels rear-ended by cars but I've never seen one where the hub breaks from an accident but the wheel remains true.

 

How does that work?

[Bos]

Do yourself a favour and get "regular" nipples.

 

The american classic nipples are aluminium and bond to the spokes and you are going to have endless issues with keeping your wheels true.

 

Rather go to a wheel builder and have him/her replace the nipples with something other than aluminium and you will have a great' date=' reliable wheelset.

[/quote']

 

never had any problems with the trueness of my Am Class wheels. This is despite a 95kg (then) body weight and being rear ended by a bakkie.

 

I must admit, the rear hub did break, but the wheels remained true.

 

 

How the F*ck does this happen??

 

Good for you. I want a set badly..eiter AC or Spinergy..

[carlo_sg]

Johan, I'm in CT and I had mine rebuilt by Richard from Chris Willemse Cycles. I'm pretty sure he only replaced the nipples (I could be wrong), but it wasn't that expensive.

After doing this, the wheels gave no more issues.

(and it only added 14g per wheel...LOL)

[Johan Bornman]

Johan' date=' I'm in CT and I had mine rebuilt by Richard from Chris Willemse Cycles. I'm pretty sure he only replaced the nipples (I could be wrong), but it wasn't that expensive.

After doing this, the wheels gave no more issues.

(and it only added 14g per wheel...LOL)[/quote']

 

 

 

I found the brochure. AC wheels have 2mm LONGER spokes. The nipple design is quite nice. The nipple head has a 2mm square extension that's threaded, which means the spokes have to travel further to reach the thread. It also means that the nipple can be gripped from behind with a square nipple tool, giving you one more option to force it once it has frozen, as you described, which is very common.

 

If your wheelbuilder didn't compensate for this by using shorter spokes, he could not have put enough tension in the wheels because he would have run out of thread.

 

That's far from ideal.

 

 

[Johan Bornman]

I've found my stash of AC nipples. Here's a photo showing the difference. On the left you have an AC nipple and on the right a standard nipple, in this case DT Swiss.

 

Note the square extension on top. The thread is shifted upwards, requiring a longer spoke.

 

 

I have converted a few American Classic wheels bought from CRC to the lighter version with the Sapim Laser spokes. I then use shorter spokes and standard nipples, saving another 6.8 grams....or is it 8.6?

 

 

 

 

[carlo_sg]

Very interesting, thanks

[Eugene]

Do yourself a favour and get "regular" nipples.

 

The american classic nipples are aluminium and bond to the spokes and you are going to have endless issues with keeping your wheels true.

 

Rather go to a wheel builder and have him/her replace the nipples with something other than aluminium and you will have a great' date=' reliable wheelset.

[/quote']

 

never had any problems with the trueness of my Am Class wheels. This is despite a 95kg (then) body weight and being rear ended by a bakkie.

 

I must admit, the rear hub did break, but the wheels remained true.

 

This type of thing is my bread and butter.

 

 

I see many wheels rear-ended by cars but I've never seen one where the hub breaks from an accident but the wheel remains true.

 

How does that work?

 

I think my use of English was not as good as it should have been. The hub did not break in the accident. It broke 2 months earlier whilst riding PE's famous 5K Hill (which is actually 7kms). It wasn't actually the hub (again bad English), but rather the free hub. It sort of stripped and it failed to engage.

 

The only damage from the accident was a torn saddle, dents in the frame a skew STi and a cracked pelvis. The wheels were completely un damaged.