cyclingday
I'm the Wiz, and nobody beats me!
Ok, here’s something I hadn’t seen before.
I was showing a bike to a friend the other day, and noticed that one of the spokes was broken.
So on closer inspection, I could see, that it wasn’t actually the spoke that broke, but the spoke nipple.
WHAT!
I’ve never seen a spoke nipple break.
So, I figured, that’s an easy fix.
Just screw on a new nipple, and you’re done, right?
Not so fast!
After I took a closer look at the wheel, I could see numerous nipples with cracks in them.
So with that discovery, I set about to completely rebuild the wheels.
Once I got to taking them apart, I could see that the nipples had been cast out of pot metal, and not turned from brass as is typical.
Crazy!
All I can think of, is that they were from some sort of war time rationing or something.
I can just imagine what kind of catastrophic wheel failure could occur from deteriorating pot metal spoke nipples.
I had no idea, that these ticking time bombs were even out there.
On the surface, they look just like any other typical spoke nipple.
The last picture shows the tell tale casting marks.
They are also lighter in weight than brass ones.
Have any of you guys ever run across these before?
I was showing a bike to a friend the other day, and noticed that one of the spokes was broken.
So on closer inspection, I could see, that it wasn’t actually the spoke that broke, but the spoke nipple.
WHAT!
I’ve never seen a spoke nipple break.
So, I figured, that’s an easy fix.
Just screw on a new nipple, and you’re done, right?
Not so fast!
After I took a closer look at the wheel, I could see numerous nipples with cracks in them.
So with that discovery, I set about to completely rebuild the wheels.
Once I got to taking them apart, I could see that the nipples had been cast out of pot metal, and not turned from brass as is typical.
Crazy!
All I can think of, is that they were from some sort of war time rationing or something.
I can just imagine what kind of catastrophic wheel failure could occur from deteriorating pot metal spoke nipples.
I had no idea, that these ticking time bombs were even out there.
On the surface, they look just like any other typical spoke nipple.
The last picture shows the tell tale casting marks.
They are also lighter in weight than brass ones.
Have any of you guys ever run across these before?