Road Cycling - Help with spoke

I just bought a used mavic cxp 23 off of ebay and i noticed when i took it out of the box that one of the spokes was showing thread!

Now the whole wheel was almost true, with just one bad spoke(not related to this spoke). i trued it up with my spoke wrench and went for a ride. the spokes seemed to be pretty well tensioned, but when i went for a ride the first few yards the spokes were making some loud clenching/squeeking noises. they quickly subsided and the ride was nice, with no problems. and unlike the wheel that i replaced this one was just as true after a ride as when i left.

What I'm concerned about is whether it is a bad thing to have some thread showing on a spoke? Does this mean that the spoke is too short? I don't know if this guy built this thing himself or what, but the rim and hub (ultegra) are in fine shape, but the black spokes are kinda beaten and some of the nipples are getting close to being rounded off. The spokes are all straight, but there are a lot of paint nicks and big pieces of paint missing. The nipples are gold in color, but some are silver making me think they were replaced. I hope I didn't get a bunk wheel, but I'm mostly concerned with this thread showing:

http://www.parts4vws.com/images/members/redventoglx/spoke.JPG


If you are reading this thanks for giving a newbie some time.

anyone?

No it isn't a bad thing to have thead showing after a wheel is trued.
It isn't a sign of a bad wheelbuilder, neglect, weak wheel, the apocalypse,
or anything else.
The noisy spokes are pretty common if they have just been adjusted
and then not prestress relieved.
One quick question, you describe yourself as a newbie (at sign off) and in body
of question mention a bad spoke that you trued up. What was bad about
1 spoke? did you use truing stand?
I think you are too focused on colour of spokes, paint chips and thread showing.
By the way, nice rim and hub combo, and no I don't think you got a
"bunk wheel".
The thread showing only indicates that the spoke did not have to be fully
tightened to true the wheel, not a indication of short nipples, spokes etc.

Marty

no i was just saying that when i was trying the wheel i noticed that this spoke(which i didnt have to adjust) had thread showing. i trued the wheel on the fork, comparing it to the brake pads as i always do. the wheel one bad spot where it moved one way, so i loosened the two nearby spokes on the side it moved to and tightened the one spoke on the exact opposite side, and slightly tighten the two adjacent spokes on that same side, thus moving it back into a straight line.

are you questioning my truing skills? because im not by any means an expert, but i did a lot of reading on it and tried it with my older wheels and had good results. so i have been doing the same.

if you read my post more carefully you would see that i was only asking about that particular spoke showing thread, and that it was unrelated to the un-trueness of the wheel. i just mentioned the wheel being a tad out of true and having the paint on the spokes pretty beaten as some background to a possible harsh previous owner.

I would ask a bike shop to check the tension in the spokes with a guage.

but the black spokes are kinda beaten and some of the nipples are getting close to being rounded off. The spokes are all straight, but there are a lot of paint nicks and big pieces of paint missing. The nipples are gold in color, but some are silver making me think they were replaced.

It sounds to me like this wheel has been worked on a lot. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if someone replaced a broken spoke with one that was a couple of mm shorter. If it was my wheel, I'd check the tension of each spoke with a tensiometer, equal them all up, then retrue the wheel, destress, and maybe put a dot of green locktite on each nipple.