I had the idea to try setting up a Raleigh Sports with 650b wheels: aluminum rims, funner fatter tire choices. But new rims are expensive, Lucy! Like clockwork, a 90s-ish Schwinn Mirada appeared in on FB marketplace for a song! It had Alesa aluminum rims that seemed perfect.

But then I was tearing down the wheels and noticed a bent spoke, and the nipple hole there is slightly pulled out. Not sure what happened. The rims are otherwise pretty darn straight and round. Would you use them?

I probably wouldn't, but thenI'm pretty conservative about such things.

You could hammer it flat _and_ find a thin steel washer that fits the head of the nipple. No regular tension nor wear and tear would be able to pull that through the rim.

The reality is that it would not be dangerous to have a spoke blow on you (been there, got startled, wrapped the dead spoke around the next one so I could limp home, I take that over a blow up flat any day) but it is potentially a huge waste of time; you build a wheel that you end up having to scrape.

That's not unheard-of when you have a relatively thin piece of aluminum trying to resist hundreds of pounds of tension. I have some wheels built with Weinmann single-wall rims that have a couple of slightly pooched-out spoke holes. I'm not sure if they were like that when I got them already well-used, or became that way during the 17,000 miles I've ridden them.

I would happily use those rims, and using nipple washers, double-butted spokes, and moderate tensions would greatly increase the chances of long-term success.

That wheel looks to have been built without nipple washers.

(An error.)

If you cannot find proper washers look for "backup plates" sold for blind rivets; they come in steel, stainless, and aluminium.

(For the error hole, use something that spans larger than the dimple - even if you work it back to shape.)

If you know how to use a flame, anneal the spot where the dimple is before working it.

I, personally would be cautious, but a proper sized washer and building with maximum cross pattern might provide best chance of success.

To suggest that the rim is or is not stable is beyond my scope of expertise. That said, I have built a lot of wheel set and I would not use a damaged rim. And I would not try to bang the damage back into shape. I would just replace the rim and I might even have an orphan. The idea of nipple washers would be my next move, were I needing to use the rim. I do have a set, or two of those elongated washers also.

Anyway, if a rim fails catastrophically (can't believe I spelled that right), down you go. Taking a chance seems like an idea worth thinking over a couple of times.

If you use a washer, best to reinforce every hole with a product made for this. Sapim’s oval shape makes sense to me. Personally I don’t use vintage rims for any of my bikes except for a set of modern Velocity Synergy rims that needed a hub. Most of my stuff has polished Sun CR18 rims. Cheap, durable, good looking.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/8-x-SAPIM-S...9013883?_ul=IN

oops, missed the 650b part. Yeah, rims are spendy

The fact that the rim didn't split there suggests that the spoke hole support there is now more stress-relieved, so perhaps even better than on the rest of the rim's spoke sockets.

Also considering that the better single-walled rims were designed and made with such cold-formed stress-relieving dimples tells me that this one is no problem at all.

The spoke will now come up slightly long. Adding a pre-cupped washer or perhaps two very thin washers will restore the spoke length issue while further reinforcing the deformed spoke hole.

And, if you're still concerned about the rim's integrity, lace the spokes so that a lower-tensioned, non-driveside spoke fits into the deformed spoke hole.

Possibly the rim's width between the brake pads will now have a slight sort of "high spot" local to the deformed spoke hole, easily pinched down gradually/gently flush using a bench vise.

I wouldn't go that far. Aluminum doesn't have a bounce back like steel, it doesn't recover from that sort of metal fatigue and that is a very high stress area; just trying to true the wheel could pull the nipple through. Having said that a nipple washer could reinforce it so it can end up more structurally sound than when brand new but without the washer.

He could nipple-washer the whole rim or just the problem child. The large oval nipple washers would add a tad of weight but make them bullet proof:

First question - what does that rim weigh? If it's a 550+ gm rim, you use the proper washers and a bigger one at that spoke hole I doubt the spoke holes are going to be the reason the rim dies. If it's a 450 gm rim, a properly built wheels washered as above should go a good distance but I'd be careful.

That looks like one of Weinmann's nicer and lighter rims. If I'm right, I'd build this up for weekend riding but not for touring or 10,000 mile years.

Now the other question - is this happening on your last dollar or valuable vacation time or are you retired, want to benefit a friend who is a good builder or otherwise can afford to lose a wheel for a couple of weeks to a re-build? Tight money and gotta have a wheel that lasts, pass on it. Got the money or the time, this could be a nice, good looking wheel that might just roll on forever. Now if this is to be a workhorse year 'round all-weather commuter rim where I live, ridden by someone like me, build it up and ride it. Brake wear with our PNW wet and grit are going to kill it in two years anyway. The spoke issues won't even have a chance to shorten its life. (Or don't if it has sentimental value.)

This isn't a case of any sort of metal fatigue, just cold-working (yielding) that produced no crack, so within the rupture limit even as the spoke was severely over-tensioned perhaps 3x or 4x of normal peak cyclical stress. Well-tested in other words, and fully stress-relieved (which the other holes are not). Stress-relieving improves future fatigue resistance, especially in softer metals like this model of rim clearly seems to be made of.
Only if the metal has become significantly thinned would the fatigue issue seem to be a concern, since the cyclic stress level might then be higher.

I can't immediately recall ever seeing a single-walled rim built using washers, but adding one washer or washer stack to optimise the spoke's threading depth makes sense here (though the now-stretched spoke might still need to be shortened and re-threaded if originality is an issue).

I disagree, that area will never be as strong as it was. Bending aluminum causes strain hardening, which might sound like 'yeah, harder, good stuff' but in reality it becomes more brittle and has a greater susceptibility to crack. Simply put, just regular tensioning of the spoke could pull the nipple through.

If it was a steel rim you could pretty much bang it back into shape and not give it another thought.

You haven't seen any of mine then.

Or all of yours have had eyelets, they'll do.

That nice mr. Brandt said that *all* aluminium rims need washers.

I've come across 3-4 early 90's 650b Schwinns with these rims, and the rims on all of them were pretty thoroughly trashed. Even with washers added I'd expect them to not last very long unless you are particularly gentle with them.