I received an Attack bike from a customer.
The rear wheel spokes keep loosening no matter how many times they tighten them.
Sure enough, the spokes directly below the spot with lateral runout were loose enough that I could feel it by hand.
Apparently they've had it fixed several times at a nearby shop, but it didn't solve the problem.
There's something oily on the nipples, and when you touch them your fingers get slippery.
A quick spray of parts cleaner wasn't enough to degrease them.
I've never seen a Reynolds wheel in this condition before, so something must have been applied to it later.
Since the customer came from far away, I wanted to avoid doing a halfway job and having them come back again if it didn't work out, so
I temporarily removed all the spokes on the non-drive side, and
cleaned them (the image is before cleaning).
When I ran them through the ultrasonic cleaner, black murky stuff came pouring out from the holes in the nipples.
There's no way you could degrease it this thoroughly while it's still on the wheel.
By disassembling the drive-side spokes too, I considered killing two birds with one stone for today's "Whee..." post category while revealing the rim weight, but the situation today didn't allow for it.
The non-drive side is straight-pull but the drive side is hooked-on, so it would've been relatively easier, but...
After degreasing the spoke threads and the inside of the nipples, I applied threadlocker and reassembled the wheel.
Additionally, I applied high-strength threadlocker (DT brand, wheel-specific, don't use it normally) to the non-drive side nipples from the outer edge, so I don't think there should be any loosening.
I'm not sure whether they loosened from adjustments or from actual loosening, but since the drive side still had some tension and the rim was already leaning toward the non-drive side before work, I tightened the drive side a bit more in addition to re-centering it.
After the work, I had the customer feel the wheel themselves, and they could tell the difference from before work clearly enough that it wasn't just a fine adjustment.
The rear wheel spokes keep loosening no matter how many times they tighten them.
Sure enough, the spokes directly below the spot with lateral runout were loose enough that I could feel it by hand.
Apparently they've had it fixed several times at a nearby shop, but it didn't solve the problem.
There's something oily on the nipples, and when you touch them your fingers get slippery.
A quick spray of parts cleaner wasn't enough to degrease them.
I've never seen a Reynolds wheel in this condition before, so something must have been applied to it later.
Since the customer came from far away, I wanted to avoid doing a halfway job and having them come back again if it didn't work out, so
I temporarily removed all the spokes on the non-drive side, and
cleaned them (the image is before cleaning).
When I ran them through the ultrasonic cleaner, black murky stuff came pouring out from the holes in the nipples.
There's no way you could degrease it this thoroughly while it's still on the wheel.
The non-drive side is straight-pull but the drive side is hooked-on, so it would've been relatively easier, but...
After degreasing the spoke threads and the inside of the nipples, I applied threadlocker and reassembled the wheel.
Additionally, I applied high-strength threadlocker (DT brand, wheel-specific, don't use it normally) to the non-drive side nipples from the outer edge, so I don't think there should be any loosening.
I'm not sure whether they loosened from adjustments or from actual loosening, but since the drive side still had some tension and the rim was already leaning toward the non-drive side before work, I tightened the drive side a bit more in addition to re-centering it.
After the work, I had the customer feel the wheel themselves, and they could tell the difference from before work clearly enough that it wasn't just a fine adjustment.