What kind of nipples do you recommend?

[Steve311]

Personally I like the soft and supple ones, but If my only choices are brass or stainless steel, which ones are better?

[felix]

There are stainless steel nipples?

[jmkimmel]

If you don't have eyelets, conventional wisdom says get brass - supposedly aluminum nipples can cold-weld to aluminum rims. Otherwise, alu are just spendier and lighter.

[Steve311]

There are stainless steel nipples?
The bike shop I go to says they have stainless steel ones.

[alain_yong@hotmail.com]

Um. Some people are more into the large pepperonis where as some like them to stick out a lot. Either way, i don't really have a preferance. I think it depends largely with what kind of face the nipples come attached with.

[AndyT]

brass..fuck aluminum unless you are able to true your wheels/keep up with them every week/few days to make sure they never loosen or anything.

[Steve311]

Um. Some people are more into the large pepperonis where as some like them to stick out a lot. Either way, i don't really have a preferance. I think it depends largely with what kind of face the nipples come attached with.
agreed, I'm not even a breast man. If they have a cute butt though, i'm all over it.

[Steve311]

brass..fuck aluminum unless you are able to true your wheels/keep up with them every week/few days to make sure they never loosen or anything.
but what about stainless??? any advantages?

[jmkimmel]

stainless is stronger than brass or aluminum, so I guess if you have problem breaking nipples, go stainless. Jebus.

[AgrAde]

brass..fuck aluminum unless you are able to true your wheels/keep up with them every week/few days to make sure they never loosen or anything.
andrew is right :wtc:

[AndyT]

I tacod one rim in my life. I was gapping to a root. It had aluminum nipples :dunno:

[AndyT]

agreed, I'm not even a breast man. If they have a cute butt though, i'm all over it.

Then you've never had some nice titties :o

[AgrAde]

I tacod one rim in my life. I was gapping to a root. It had aluminum nipples :dunno:
:rofl: i tacod my rim the other day gapping to a root. i have aluminium nipples.

i saved the rim, but by rights it should be dead.

i'm a butt man also, and i've had some pretty acceptable titties?

[Steve311]

Then you've never had some nice titties :o
my mom did breast feed me back in the day and she used to be a hottie....does that count??? j/k that was kinda gross.

[Elan]

alu on front, brass in the back..whats so hard about that.

[WhiteRavenKS]

alloy front and back, use dt nips. i had one wheel go to shit because of alloy nips, they were poop brand nips. ive never had a dt alloy nip break or fail. i have rounded them when being a dumbass but they are easily replaced. use brass if you just dont want to worry about it ever. stainless? are we living in the world of tomorrow?

[firewrx612]

I always go aluminum. If you use good wheel building practices (tension slowly and evenly, use spoke prep or oil) you shouldn't have a problem. If you want the ultimate in strength though, get brass. Usually it's the spokes that break and not the nipples in my experience. But loosening shouldn't be the problem, that's usually an indication that the wheel isn't tensioned evenly. You also have to be careful about rounding off aluminum nipples, once you have brought it up to tension. This usually isn't a problem if you have a good spoke wrench of the correct size and you lubricate where you should.


Use oil to lubricate the nipple rim interface and also the spoke threads (spoke prep can be used for the spkoke threads also). Tension slowly(1/4 turn at a time, if you're a rookie) and evenly. When tension starts to come up start paying attention to uniform spoke tension. When you pluck each spoke the should have the same tone(on a given side). Then worry about lateral and radial trueness. With a new rim, if you're meticulous about keeping tension even it should be pretty close to true anyway.

Oh yeah, and I'll second what Kevin said, use DT nips and spokes.
.

[Sir_Crackien]

i always use brass nipples. its because at one point in time i have a XC wheel set with a good biulder and good alloy nipples and i had many nipple failures. btw i never really rode the wheel that hard. infact those where the wheels i was nicest to.

[AndyT]

nope, it's larva. enough said
sorry, its a plant.



Ok, so I had dt nipples/spokes...built by a barnett's graduate and veteran pro trials rider, used everything correct (even a tensiometer) with alum nips...broke in 3 months, came loose every week.

Second wheel, built by a hack without even a truing stand. Brass nips, don't even know what kind of spokes. Hasn't come out of true in uhhh almost a year?


If you have the time to look after the alum nipples every few rides (I like to NOT TOUCH MY BIKE EVER- the biggest problem about trials is you have to play with your bike all the time, why add some more dumb shit to do on that huge list) go for it. It's like having a slow leak.

[trialsrider50]

sorry, its a plant.

ok well none the less I'm thankful it hath been deleted.

[WhiteRavenKS]

yeah, next time you want to post anything remotely like that, dont.

[AndyT]

that wasn't even the original wtftit :o lies...

[ChrisB]

yeah, next time you want to post anything remotely like that, dont.

[tomacropod]

I build with alloy nipples exclusively except for trials rear wheel. Because I knock it out of true and have to fix it sometimes - brass nipples turn easier in alloy rims. For front trials wheel, and every other wheel, alloy nipples are the way to go. I just bought 200.

Also, I've rounded brass nips before from being a bit lazy and hack-ish but have never ever damaged an alloy nipple - I've even reused them without trouble. Don't use anything other than DT though - the Sapim ones are shit.

- Joel

[Spencz86]

Spline drive...

[trialsrider50]

yeah, next time you want to post anything remotely like that, dont.
hater. jk