Originally Posted by mrrabbit

The reason I'm picking "little bones" is that I detected a little "insistence" on aiming for the top of a nipple.

For a "newbie", insistence can be interpreted as, "that's the way it's supposed to be."

That's discarding the limiting effect a nipple has too much in my opinion. We have to be careful here - especially when helping others.


Nowadays most 12mm brass nipples used with modern day 9.0mm - 9.5mm threaded spokes will allow 1-2 threads past the top. But counting on that as a matter of practice can be fatal.

A good example were the EDCO 12mm brass nipples produced right around the early 1990s. These had an extra thread in them - and they were advertised as a better or stronger nipple because of it.

Problem was - more threads in the nipple = more restrictive threading behavior. Builders calculating and building by habit - aiming for the top - would be left scratching there heads when they discovered they had run out of threads before achieving the tension they wanted. These nipples allowed the spoke to go about about 2 threads past the flat instead of going to or slight past the top. They were almost indistinguishable from your DT and Wheelsmith cousins.

If folks consistently grasp that the word "effective" in ERD means exactly that - and the reference is to a particular distance in a wheel...AND test nipple and thread behavior - they'll find themselves off to a good start with the wheels they build 99% of the time.

That's all...just "bones" - no gripes.

=8-)