gadgetadam 

Broken Nipple

Posting in Bicycling Mechanics and Road Cycling forums

I have a road bike with Mavic Aksium wheelsets. I bought the bike new in 2009. Recently the rear wheel developed a pinging noise when going uphill or gaining speed. I decided to check the spoke tension. Without getting into too much detail let’s just say while I was tightening up one of the spoke nipples it broke in half. The round part that goes into the rim broke from the square part that you grip to tighten. Since the square part broke off my spoke tool is useless. I tried turning the spoke nipple with a pair of pliers but it won’t move. I have 3 bikes and enjoy doing work myself so I’m going to order the tools necessary to do wheel truing but I had a question about what I need to repair my wheel so I can start riding. I searched for hours and hours and I’m pretty sure the nipple needs to be brass at 16mm long but I don’t know how thick or what kind of spoke to order(carbone, ssc sl, crossmax st?)

What type of spoke nipple and spoke should I order so I can fix this?

Thanks.

cny-bikeman

...searched for hours and hours? If you don't have a knowledgable dealer nearby who can provide the spoke or at least the info on what you need by looking at the wheel, I would suggest you find one online who sell those wheelsets and ask them for assistance.

ultraman6970

That's one of the reasons I have never bought mavic wheels, something happens and you get stuck with the dealer to contact the manufacturer and if the manufacturer says no no, then you can't find the parts anyways and you end up with a wall sculpture in the worse case scenario.. sometimes is better just go custom or get an easier wheel to work with just because of repairs and parts.

You can find spokes and nipples at ebay just in case.

rogerstg

Just cut the spoke and measure the length of the two pieces as well as the diameter or blade proportions in mm.

It sounds like you have aluminum nipples that have corroded. The bad news is that others are likely to fail in short order. If that's the case, I'd buy replacement nipples and change them all.

rydabent

Well the title of the thread sure got my attention

Al1943

Take the wheel apart. If a rear wheel take one from each side to your LBS so that they can see what you have and offer advise. Also inspect the rim carefully for cracks near the spoke holes. Most wheels fail at the rim first. Small cracks may be hard to find. If your rim has any you'll need a new rim.