Wheel build quality???

[hannawald]

Hi,

I have just received my new (mtb) carbon wheels and there is a scratch next to nearly every nipple hole. Is that something which happens? I don't think there is a problem with rim integrity, just clear coat scratches but does it imply bad wheelbuild quality? I have never had it on my wheels. The complication might be that the rims have no holes in the rim bed.
Thanks!

[wheelsONfire]

Oh that's annoying. What wheelset is this?

[Steve Curtis]

That's crap. Potentially the nipple has been over tightened pulling up and popped off the clear coat/ paint.
Send them straight back to wherever you got them

[hannawald]

That's crap. Potentially the nipple has been over tightened pulling up and popped off the clear coat/ paint.
Send them straight back to wherever you got them

Oh, I didn´t thought it might be so serious...my idea was that it is just scratched because somebody was not careful enough and leaned some tool on the rim...

I have no idea about the wheelbuilding process, I just know I have never seen that so I am kindly asking here for the assessment so I have arguments whether it is something normal/might happen/shit work but ok/might be a problem. The wheels are new but not bought straight from the shop so the exchange procedure might be possible but not simple and straightforward. The seller is a private person.

[Steve Curtis]

That's crap. Potentially the nipple has been over tightened pulling up and popped off the clear coat/ paint.
Send them straight back to wherever you got them

Oh, I didn´t thought it might be so serious...my idea was that it is just scratched because somebody was not careful enough and leaned some tool on the rim...

I have no idea about the wheelbuilding process, I just know I have never seen that so I am kindly asking here for the assessment so I have arguments whether it is something normal/might happen/shit work but ok/might be a problem. The wheels are new but not bought straight from the shop so the exchange procedure might be possible but not simple and straightforward. The seller is a private person.

It's possible that it's from a spoke key, but most are shaped so this doesn't happen.
You'd also need to be an idiot to go around and do that to every nipple, after doing the 1st one.

I think the nipple is starting to pull through the rim. I could be wrong but without having them in my hands,mits hard to tell.

There are so very experienced wheel builders on here so hopefully they'll be along soon to offer another opinion.

[hannawald]

Some more pictures (better to click and zoom, hard for my mobile phone to make pictures from small distance)

[wheelbuilder]

Looks like the end of the spoke scratching against the rim surface while trying to thread spoke into nipple. Can't tell for sure in photos.

[hannawald]

Looks like the end of the spoke scratching against the rim surface while trying to thread spoke into nipple. Can't tell for sure in photos.

Thanks. Might be because of the complications with no nipple hole rim bead?

[Mr.Gib]

Might be because of the complications with no nipple hole rim bead?

Perhaps indirectly. Usually when a magnet is used to bring the nipple to the spoke hole you might get some long scratches if the magnet is not covered with something soft. In this case the damage could have been caused by the builder grabbing the nipple with plyers to start the threading process. Whatever tool was used must have had some rough edges and corners because those are serious gouges. It's possible it is from a spoke key, but some of the damage is quite far away from the nipple.

I will also propose that that wheel, or certainly that rim is not new. No wheel builder would ever allow that to happen unless it was some DIY hack building their first wheel without any guidence. Or at the very least, someone with no wheel experience made some adjustments, something that would be done to a "new" wheel. It is very easy to take a disc rim, clean it up, re-build it, and call it new. All of my rims, some with many thousands of kms, could pass as new.

And those nipples look very short and a bit mangled themselves. I only see bad news here.

I am sorry to say that I think you have been ripped off.

[jesper2913]

Might be because of the complications with no nipple hole rim bead?

Perhaps indirectly. Usually when a magnet is used to bring the nipple to the spoke hole you might get some long scratches if the magnet is not covered with something soft. In this case the damage could have been caused by the builder grabbing the nipple with plyers to start the threading process. Whatever tool was used must have had some rough edges and corners because those are serious gouges. It's possible it is from a spoke key, but some of the damage is quite far away from the nipple.

I will also propose that that wheel, or certainly that rim is not new. No wheel builder would ever allow that to happen unless it was some DIY hack building their first wheel without any guidence. Or at the very least, someone with no wheel experience made some adjustments, something that would be done to a "new" wheel. It is very easy to take a disc rim, clean it up, re-build it, and call it new. All of my rims, some with many thousands of kms, could pass as new.

And those nipples look very short and a bit mangled themselves. I only see bad news here.

I am sorry to say that I think you have been ripped off.

I agree with Mr. Gib. I've built around 30 wheelsets, one of them was without nipple holes in the rimbed. And I used a magnet covered with electrical tape in order to prevent scratches on the rim. It worked out fine. I have never seen damages like these.

No wheelbuilder would accept making that kind of damage to the rim. Might the wheels have been machine build and overtightened?

I'm pretty sure the nipple key didn't do that. I'm not familier with a nipple key that could cause that kind of damage. They are made so that this can't happen.

The way I see it, it doesnt matter which explanation is the correct one. All of the possible explanations are critical.

Do you have a LBS with a skilled wheelbuilder nearby?

I would try to return the wheels and get a refund. Those rims are bad news.

[hannawald]

Thanks everybody. I will contact the seller and the manufacturer and let you know what I will find out.

[pushpush]

I'm reminded of an old expression: If there is any doubt, there is no doubt.

Contact the seller and get replacements. There are enough things that can go wrong. You don't need to be second guessing your wheels.

[Jasonlelam]

It seems the builder did not have a strong sense of details handling since he repeatly scratching in the same wheel and sent it out as their quality standard.

[hannawald]

They are going to exchange the wheels for a model with spoke holes in the rim bed which was in stock and should be ok. As the post is extremely slow before Xmas it should come at the end of the year. It seems this kind of rims are new to them and they haven't adjusted the building process accordingly, maybe the spokes are too long so they can't get them to the holes without scratching the rim...doesn't make me trustful in the quality but hopefully it is gonna be ok. At least they acknowledge there is a problem and offered a solution. It is not a one man show, they build thousands of wheelsets a year and supply some local pro teams.