Help,

I bought a set of American Classic 420s, and am having serious problems with spoke nipples loosening on me. I'm a big guy (200lbs), and didn't realize there was a weight limit before I bought 'em (I know, oops). I've had great luck with Mavic products, and the Velomax Orions I have are bombproof.

I've taken exactly three short rides on the things, and each time ended up with at least one nipple rattling around the inside of the rim, and have had to remove the rim strip and play Captain Ahab to fish the stupid things out of there.

I did have the LBS true them and check the tension, but this hasn't helped. When the wheels are doing well, they're really nice, so want to keep them. Would something like a dab of locktite at the nipple help this, or should I just unload the suckers?

Thx

They can make a custom Clydesdale version. This is not what you have. I would hate to be the person to pick these up after you. I can't believe a reputable shop would sell these to you.

I would have the lbs use spokeprep on those or spoke freeze. This should prevent them from loosening up on you. I ride the 350 sprints which is the lighter wheel and I weigh 185lbs and have no issues with spokes and haven't trued them yet.

If the reason for loosening is from the spokes going completely slack, thread locking won't do you much good. That type of stress cycling inevitably is going to lead to premature spoke breakage.

Loosening spokes is the classic example of not enough tension in the wheel - the spokes go slack with each revolution and this allows the nipples to un-thread. While 200 lb is on the high end, it should result in long term problems, not loose spokes after a couple of rides. These need to go back to where ever and be tightened to specification. Somebody screwed up.

Thanks for the info. I'll talk with the local wrench with these suggestions and get to the bottom of this. Even though I'm right at the weight limit, I refuse to believe that these wheels are behaving normally.

Cheers!

If the reason for loosening is from the spokes going completely slack, thread locking won't do you much good. That type of stress cycling inevitably is going to lead to premature spoke breakage.


Uh this is wrong . Am classic wheels require threadlock of some kind on the spoke threads to prevent the nipples from backing off. Some Guy in Taiwan at quality control didnt think they needed to do this extra step and caused alot of problems . The combination of light spokes and light rim cause enough movement , however so slight to cause the nipples to back off the spokes. They must be locktighted the blue medium tension" Locktite" does fine . It takes about an hour a wheel to locktight and true. Make sure you use an anti twist tool of some sort or you will just twist the spoke and cause it to break.

Why do you think this is wrong? A properly built wheel will remain in tension without any thread locking compounds. If that wheel looses tension nevertheless, then the components used simply aren't up to the required task. Thread locking the nipples in such an instance will only move the problem to another area.

Why do you think this is wrong? A properly built wheel will remain in tension without any thread locking compounds. If that wheel looses tension nevertheless, then the components used simply aren't up to the required task. Thread locking the nipples in such an instance will only move the problem to another area.

Yep , thats what needs to happen and then the wheels will be ridable .

AC also recommends the use of a spoke clamp (twist resist) when truing their wheels to prevent spoke windup. They emphasize the word 'must' when talking about using the spoke clamp. http://www.amclassic.com/tech/Wheel_Truing.html

Looks like a pretty hi tech pair of pliers to me. lol :D

If those last couple of posts aren't the definition of a junk wheel build I don't know what is.....

Any wheel build that relies on glue to keep it together is rubbish. You do not need any loctite to keep the nipples from unscrewing, you just need to increase the tension. All the AC wheels that we have rebuilt with higher spoke tension hasn't come undone.