Fred Smedley

Out of curiosity, why all brass nipples?

Psimet2001 

Durability. Maintainability. Alloy nipples will fail through normal use. Not worth the 20g in 99% of the wheels to be made. Race only or special application then no problem.

Caad 8

What's this 'special' that I'm reading about in your sig? I'm telling you now, I'm an unemployed college student, so its going to have to be a very big special....

Psimet2001 

Something I put in there last fall before cross season and haven't taken out. Not advertising so I can't expand. You can always contact me through my site.

Tunnelrat81

Alloy nipples are more prone to breakage, they eventually build up corrosion in the threads and are also far more easy to round off with a spoke wrench. Typical story with alloy nipples would be that they start to corrode and lock themselves to the spokes, which requires more force on the spoke wrench to break free, which brings to reality their other weakness. Next thing you know your nipples are still locked to the spokes, and are now rounded off from the corners collapsing. Granted, this is more of an issue with older wheels that have seen many miles, but still an issue. Straight up failures are also not unheard of. Some people simply won't build with alloy nipples because of these weaknesses.

Brass is a wonderful material. It's as close to "self lubricating" a metal as I'm aware of (Most lock cylinders are made out of brass, where pins need to move freely after years of use), stronger and less likely to freeze to the spokes at the threads. Also, Brass nipples can be re-used, where alloy should never be reused. The two weaknesses of brass nipples are slightly heavier weight (about 20gr. per 32 spoke wheel), and no fancy (anodized) colors. Not much of a sacrifice considering the advantages IMO.

-Jeremy

Tunnelrat81

Thanks for sharing. I went with the same silver hub/silver spokes/black rim combo. Will definitely be posting pictures of mine once they arrive and are built. =) Why the RR585 over the Kinlin XR-300 if I might ask?

-Jeremy

botto 

hello.

ScrubJ

Didn't know anyone still used cotton rim tape. I haven't used it in years, much prefer the plastic tape as it makes tire installation easier.

KendallF

Here's one pair of mine a few days ago:

Daytrip

OK

WCroadie

Can you please explain how the tape makes tire installation easier? I have used both plastic and cotton and never noticed tire installation being different. I prefer the cotton.

waterrockets 

I'll jump on the train too. My front wheel (built myself) is finally ready for replacement because the braking surface has worn through.

So, my new front from Psimet after much discussion:
XR-300
CX-Rays
Alchemy ELF hub
Brass nips
24h, radial

...and he's letting me build it!

I'm all giggly inside

KendallF

I actually built the front shown above, using an XR300 20h rim from Psimet, a Bontrager hub salvaged from my buddy's wrecked wheel, and whatever spokes I found in my local shop's drawer..special eh?

I had a pretty bad crash with these in a crit last year, and broke two spokes in the front. You can actually see an indentation around the two spoke holes in question..I put a couple of new spokes in and I'm keeping an eye on it in case I need to replace the rim, but no issues thus far. Those rims are tough!

coasting 

i misread the title. i thought psiment showed up at your door.

Daytrip

That would be a real, custom build, wouldn't it?

Quel

That's what I went with, but with White hubs. Pretty solid.

Hills of Kansas

Because I copied and pasted wrong, I have the XR300 on both the front and rear... Whoops.

BikeWise1

Yeah...until one falls into deep weeds on the side of the road while changing a flat, never to be seen again resulting in a long walk home.....

Gimme the tape every time. I'm strong enough to cope with the extra few grams......

Scummer

That I can only attest to. My front wheel popped already 4 alloy nipples. Only roughly 5000-6000 miles on the wheel. Snapped off right below the mushroom part of the nipple.

Psimet2001 

+1 - I have been using tape exclusively but I have put some plugs on race application wheels for some sponsored riders. I will wait until we have a season of racing on them before I really start passing judgement on them but right now I would agree that my preference is strictly tape.

coasting 

does psimet also do weddings and bar mitzvahs?

waterrockets 

If tires are a tight fit, they will slice over plastic strips easier than cotton, which makes it easier to get the first bead over to give you more room for the tube. Also makes rotation of the tire around the rim easier to position the labels over the valve stem hole or to align the valve stem with the hole.

That said, I use cotton.

NickDavid

Which rim tape should I purchase for these wheels? Just stopped at the shop and they said they didn't have "Green" tape for road wheels. I've never purchased tape before.

waterrockets 

Any ~16mm wide tape is fine.

NickDavid

Thanks, WR.