The stupid questions thread.

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Random thought on spoke nipples...tweak me?

Why are they brass or (I know!) Aluminium? Why not stainless steel or some other steel alloy? Why not titanium (other than price)? Is brass really just that good that nothing else should ever be considered? What about bronze?
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Random thought on spoke nipples...tweak me?

Why are they brass or (I know!) Aluminium? Why not stainless steel or some other steel alloy? Why not titanium (other than price)? Is brass really just that good that nothing else should ever be considered? What about bronze?
Stainless isn't good to have directly on aluminium, it will cause galvanic corrosion, also you get the problem of galling with the nipple and spoke, also too hard for a lot of wheel applications, and other materials are too expensive, you can get Ti spokes and nips. Brass nipples, soft, cheap, easy to make, what more do you want in this beautiful world?
 

Dales Cannon

lightbrain about 4pm
Staff member
As above, stainless will gall with hard spoke material. Titanium is soft so you dont want that. Aluminium has its own issues especially in carbon rims and brass, well brass is pretty damn fine for that duty.
 

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
In addition to the above, stainless steel can work-harden and become brittle under prolonged cyclic loads, leading to eventual failure.

Brass by contrast is relatively non-reactive with other stuff, so corrosion takes a bloody long time to set in; some quirk of its composition makes it reasonably self-lubricating, which almost eliminates galling; and it's soft enough to have a bit of give under cyclic loads, while having enough shear strength to not pull threads out. It's simply the perfect stuff for spoke nipples.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
"Similar" only as far as sharing a copper base; very different alloying elements.

It does make up a significant amount of the finished product. If it worked, I'd brand them Spartan nipples. But it would be hard work avoiding Achilles' heel puns if there was a problem.
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
Client of mine has snapped his QR rear axle on his 2019 Giant ATX. It's been a very long time since I've had to deal with that crap, I think my options are:
  1. Buy a new axle from somewhere and install
  2. Buy a new 7sp hub and re-lace
  3. Buy a whole new wheel.
Anyone have any suggestions on where to start looking?
 

The Duckmeister

Has a juicy midrange
Angular contact bearings, yes, but that isn't the problem. Ancient shithouse screw-on cluster design which puts the drive-side bearing almost in the middle of the axle is the problem. Huge proportion of the axle is unsupported, and it breaks.
 

Litenbror

Eats Squid
Client of mine has snapped his QR rear axle on his 2019 Giant ATX. It's been a very long time since I've had to deal with that crap, I think my options are:
  1. Buy a new axle from somewhere and install
  2. Buy a new 7sp hub and re-lace
  3. Buy a whole new wheel.
Anyone have any suggestions on where to start looking?
I stuffed the thread on one on my commuter before getting sent to work from home. The local 99 bikes had them for $20 a pair.
 

Litenbror

Eats Squid
Talk me out of a Reverb AXS.

Cable actuated droppers have been giving me the shits recently and with a new frame being designed I'm considering ditching the dropper cable all together and going wireless.
 

pink poodle

気が狂っている男
Talk me out of a Reverb AXS.

Cable actuated droppers have been giving me the shits recently and with a new frame being designed I'm considering ditching the dropper cable all together and going wireless.

Don't waste your funds!!! Telekinesis operated dippers are just around the corner.
 
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