Rim nipple replacement
 

I have one spoke snapped on my Cannondale BadBoy Ultra.
Ordered DT Swiss spokes and nipples to fix it. Some of the nipples are corroded, so I am thinking of replacing them.
Do I have to replace spokes as well?
Thanks.

how old is the bike?... that model's been around a while.
when you say"corrosion", what is it that you're seeing? greenish? rust? white powder? black?
was an impact involved with the spoke snapping?
where along the spoke did it break? j-bend? near the nipple?

how much, and what kind of, use does the bike experience?

If the spoke nipples are aluminum alloy, replacing all of them is a good idea

It's unusual for good quality brass nipples to corrode, is it just the black finish that has deteriorated?

No, you don't have to replace spokes when replacing corroded nipples. However, other questions must be answered. Such as, how old is the rim? Who made the rim? What make are the current spokes? How far did you ride with one broken spoke?

It may be more worthwhile to replace the entire rim and send the old one to your local recycling center.





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If this is your first spoke I would just replace it and keep an eye on the wheel but if you are seeing corrosion then there might be other compromising factors and you might want to replace the wheels. I wouldn't go through the labor of rebuilding those wheels as they are probably low cost machine built jobbers and nothing really to write home about. Maybe a little more decent than the absolute bottom end but nothing high end enough to really want to spend the time and money to rebuild unless just looking for a project and learning experience but then I would just build a new wheel and use the old wheel to tear apart and not care so much about.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I agree, if the nipples are rusting, it makes me question the quality of the wheel. Generally only cheap wheels have rusted nipples. Not worth rebuilding.





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Corrosion on modern wheels happens when you have alloy nipples in carbon rims, unplated brass nipples and ammonia based tubeless fluid. or alloy nipples and salt.

Very, very common in high end wheels.

He didn't specify iron oxide, it could be white crust on aluminium, or blue-green verdigris on brass, or just a flaking or pitted surface. As he hasn't replied to any questions we may never know. Or maybe he's just a Sunday poster.
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In my 2005 Bad Boy Ultra spec it says: Spoke Brand DT Swiss stainless steel, does not say anything about nipples. Picture is attached
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...39751bff4f.jpg

That is frankly weird. It looks like you have at least one carbon steel nipple - which is not normal. But that is red rust, and nothing but iron rusts like that.

Remove the rusty nipples. If you do them one at a time you will be able to do it yourself without really needing to true the wheel - just put the wheel in the bike, adjust the brake pads close and tighten each spoke until it is centered between the brake pads. Then move to the next bad nipple.

The other nipple looks like aluminium - I suspect the steel nipple is there because the original aluminium one stripped or rounded, and someone replaced it with whatever black nipple they had lying around.

So back to my initiaal post. I replaced one spoke that broke with what I bought. Nipple is shorter than others there. I was able to tention replaced spoke and there was no need to true the wheel. I will see if other spokes will hold.
As far as rusted nipples, there are several of them there. "Replace them or not , that is the question" William Shakespeare.
Thanks.