Originally Posted by
Trakhak
If the nipples are in bad shape, you'd obviously replace them. If they haven't been touched since the wheels were built, no need to replace them. (I've oiled the spoke threads on all my wheel builds since the 1960's, so getting full tension is easy. It's been very rare for me to have to true any of them even once.)
You know, it would be interesting to take say 10 new and 10 old spoke nipples and tension them on a jig with new spokes until they let go and take an aggregate reading. I do wonder how much there is in it, I just go with gut instinct, sometimes results can surprise!