Little black balls in my Roval Traverse SL rims

C

creaky

XMAS Plumper
Found a couple of loose spokes on my Roval Control carbons yesterday, put a bit of tension into them before a ride.

Last night decided to go over the rear with the tension meter. Several nipples would not turn independent of the spoke (straight pulls), can hear little tinking noises inside the rim ... I don't even have to take the rim tape off now to know what has happened ! Might be time for a rebuild with brass nipples. I just hope that the spokes are salvageable.
 
ozzybmx

ozzybmx

taking a shit with my boobs out
Dont know what getting you nips off entails, but the enve internals were corroded so bad that you couldnt even turn the nipple on the inside.

This meant cutting a few of the spokes to get some of the adjacent spokes out of the wheel, until it all loosened up. This then turned out to be a PITA because the original spoke at, say 292mm, were now slightly stretched and measured as 294mm, which then bottomed out on the nipple.... plus my first experience of buying Sapim CX Rays in Australia was an expensive lesson.

I bought 292mm revos and built up the wheel to ride for the 5 week wait, while more CX rays came by slow boat from Bike24.
 
C

creaky

XMAS Plumper
Well, here is half of the nipples from my front wheel (as shaken out the valve hole) .... an ominous sign

IMG_3669.jpg

And here is the other half still attached to a spoke .....

IMG_3670.jpg

For reference, wheels are just over 2.5yrs old. The front had never been touched by a spoke wrench. The rear was rebuilt under warranty by the LBS within the first 12 months and the nipples aren't as bad but still are corroded. Obvious why I couldn't get some nipples to tighten.

Guess it's time for a full rebuild using brass nipples. Bugger.
 
notime

notime

Likes Dirt
Get some penetrene or similar in there for 12 hours before you start pulling them down. My spoke holes looked like that and I managed to get every nipple off without damaging spokes.
 
B

Boxer

Likes Dirt
Had my 18 month old Control carbon SL pulled down and checked...... no signs of corrosion thus far luckily
 
C

creaky

XMAS Plumper
Wheels have been rebuilt by specialized dealer with brass nipples and the existing spokes. Feel a bit low on tension to me but they reckon they're fine. Will see how they go but hopefully that is the corrosion issue dealt with on that set.

In other news, spoke broke on my 2 month old roval road wheels yesterday arvo. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a 'trouble' wheel but I'm not holding my breath from past experience with early life spoke failures.
 
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