The rear wheel of Nomu Lab Wheel #1, which I'd just built the other day, experienced not only initial loosening of the non-freewheel side nipples,
but also a case where a completely loosened nipple fell inside the rim.
While such extreme loosening is extremely rare in itself,
this is the first time it's happened in such a short time frame.
When something like this occurs, I think about how an event with odds less than 1/1000 for me
becomes 1/1 for the customer who happened to draw it.
Since there were some possible causes I could think of,
I completely disassembled all the non-freewheel side nipples,
degreased the spoke threads, applied threadlocker,
and replaced all the nipples with new ones.
The image above shows the provisional center point at the position where the spoke threads
are just hidden by the inner edge of the nipple's end face.
I'm not joking.
At least the tip of the dial gauge does protrude beyond the gauge body.
After tightening the non-freewheel side by exactly 3 turns each,
I trued the wheel with a tightening trend.
Rather than just tightening the non-freewheel side,
the freewheel side spokes' nipples
retain the information of the rim's vertical position and center
from when assembly was completed,
so I haven't touched them except for final micro-adjustments.
I tightened the center just a little bit more.
At that point, I applied DT Spoke Freeze, a threadlocker,
from the outside of the wheel.
It used to be a red liquid, but the current version is green.
You can see it seeping into the gaps in the threads and the slot in the nipple.
Regarding this Spoke Freeze, it's not something you apply beforehand to the spoke threads before building the wheel.
If you did that, within a night the nipple would become so stuck
you wouldn't be able to turn it.
The correct way to use it is to drip it into the rim holes of an already-built wheel to apply it.
However, this time I applied it just before the final centering.
At this point I've already re-trued the wheel for both radial and lateral runout, so
all that's left is even tightening of the non-freewheel side.
After applying the Spoke Freeze,
the nipples suddenly felt much stiffer to turn.
The center is dialed in.
With this, I don't think the nipples will loosen.
Regarding DT's Spoke Freeze, it's now sold in 2-bottle sets.
For those who know, it's immediately obvious,
but it's just Henkel's (manufacturer name) Loctite (brand name)
threadlocker with a different label, so
the OEM source is obvious.
Checking the current price of this Spoke Freeze 2-bottle set,
I found it's ¥20,000 excluding tax / ¥22,000 including tax.
That's not ¥2,000, it's ¥20,000.
The past prices I could quickly find were
¥10,000 excluding tax / ¥11,000 including tax for 2021 and 2022.
The price doubled starting in 2023.
I think it would be better to look for something with similar properties from Loctite instead.
The 222 shown in the image above is low-strength,
but based on my analysis, the old Spoke Freeze is equivalent to 262,
and the current Spoke Freeze is equivalent to 290.
At DT, there's a Star Ratchet-specific grease that has no alternative
(Mavic has a dedicated grease for the Instant Drive 360,
but it seems hard to obtain. Some people substitute it with Star Ratchet Grease,
but I've never heard of the reverse happening),
and checking the price history (list price),
2021 had a cylindrical container with 25ml
for ¥2,340 excluding tax / ¥2,574 including tax.
During that same year it was changed to a tube-type container with 20g,
but the price remained the same at that point.
By the way, 25ml and 20g are the same amount for Star Ratchet Grease. For details (→see here)
2022 was ¥2,500 excluding tax / ¥2,750 including tax,
and 2023 became ¥3,400 excluding tax / ¥3,740 including tax.
Not as extreme as Spoke Freeze,
(↑ or rather, that one is the real problem)
but still a pretty significant price increase.
but also a case where a completely loosened nipple fell inside the rim.
While such extreme loosening is extremely rare in itself,
this is the first time it's happened in such a short time frame.
When something like this occurs, I think about how an event with odds less than 1/1000 for me
becomes 1/1 for the customer who happened to draw it.
Since there were some possible causes I could think of,
I completely disassembled all the non-freewheel side nipples,
degreased the spoke threads, applied threadlocker,
and replaced all the nipples with new ones.
The image above shows the provisional center point at the position where the spoke threads
are just hidden by the inner edge of the nipple's end face.
I'm not joking.
At least the tip of the dial gauge does protrude beyond the gauge body.
After tightening the non-freewheel side by exactly 3 turns each,
I trued the wheel with a tightening trend.
Rather than just tightening the non-freewheel side,
the freewheel side spokes' nipples
retain the information of the rim's vertical position and center
from when assembly was completed,
so I haven't touched them except for final micro-adjustments.
I tightened the center just a little bit more.
At that point, I applied DT Spoke Freeze, a threadlocker,
from the outside of the wheel.
It used to be a red liquid, but the current version is green.
You can see it seeping into the gaps in the threads and the slot in the nipple.
Regarding this Spoke Freeze, it's not something you apply beforehand to the spoke threads before building the wheel.
If you did that, within a night the nipple would become so stuck
you wouldn't be able to turn it.
The correct way to use it is to drip it into the rim holes of an already-built wheel to apply it.
However, this time I applied it just before the final centering.
At this point I've already re-trued the wheel for both radial and lateral runout, so
all that's left is even tightening of the non-freewheel side.
After applying the Spoke Freeze,
the nipples suddenly felt much stiffer to turn.
The center is dialed in.
With this, I don't think the nipples will loosen.
Regarding DT's Spoke Freeze, it's now sold in 2-bottle sets.
For those who know, it's immediately obvious,
but it's just Henkel's (manufacturer name) Loctite (brand name)
threadlocker with a different label, so
the OEM source is obvious.
Checking the current price of this Spoke Freeze 2-bottle set,
I found it's ¥20,000 excluding tax / ¥22,000 including tax.
That's not ¥2,000, it's ¥20,000.
The past prices I could quickly find were
¥10,000 excluding tax / ¥11,000 including tax for 2021 and 2022.
The price doubled starting in 2023.
I think it would be better to look for something with similar properties from Loctite instead.
The 222 shown in the image above is low-strength,
but based on my analysis, the old Spoke Freeze is equivalent to 262,
and the current Spoke Freeze is equivalent to 290.
At DT, there's a Star Ratchet-specific grease that has no alternative
(Mavic has a dedicated grease for the Instant Drive 360,
but it seems hard to obtain. Some people substitute it with Star Ratchet Grease,
but I've never heard of the reverse happening),
and checking the price history (list price),
2021 had a cylindrical container with 25ml
for ¥2,340 excluding tax / ¥2,574 including tax.
During that same year it was changed to a tube-type container with 20g,
but the price remained the same at that point.
By the way, 25ml and 20g are the same amount for Star Ratchet Grease. For details (→see here)
2022 was ¥2,500 excluding tax / ¥2,750 including tax,
and 2023 became ¥3,400 excluding tax / ¥3,740 including tax.
Not as extreme as Spoke Freeze,
(↑ or rather, that one is the real problem)
but still a pretty significant price increase.