I was about to replace a spoke and the spoke nipple is now inside the rim. I can hear the nipple rattling around. It's tubeless tire and thus has tubeless rim tape.
Is there any way/tip to get this nipple out without removing (and replacing) the tubeless rim tape? I don't have any and it will take a few days until it arrives anyway.
Worst case scenario: do you think any damage (besides the rattling) would occur when I ride with the nipple inside (~100km), until the replacement rim tape arrives?
by CerealBit
10 Comments
You rattle it around until you can get it out of he valve stem hole. You don’t need to remove the rim tape but you do need to remove the valve stem.
Try to shake it out the valve hole.
You do the “I dropped a spoke nipple in the rim“ dance
Won’t you need to remove the rim tape to get the nipple back into the hole and threaded onto the new spoke anyway? Or were you planning to ride without that one spoke?
The spoke to the right, is that a crack forming around the nipple, or is it cosmetic damage?
If that’s a crack, then you would need to replace the whole rim.
Remove valve. Shake out of valve.
The tricky part is repositioning the new nipple without disturbing the tape. You’ll need an M2 x 10mm flat cap machine screw and a strong neodymium magnet. Install screw into nipple, put combo into the rim via valve hole, and use magnet to guide back into place.
Magnet if it’s a steel nipple, if brass or aluminum, patience. You need to get it out of the valve hole.
Unless my eyes are mistaken its a bit of a moot point anyway.
Look to the spoke to the right of the one thats missing and it looks like there is a crack in the rim if thats the case the rim is toast and you need a new one so a nipple causing a rattle wont matter anyway.
Struggle with shaking it out for 30 minutes. Then hand it to someone else and it falls out lol 😆
You can take the rim tape off