Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

stevenaaus
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Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Sun Nov 04, 2018 3:01 pm

I bought two Kotavelo R21 's second hand in GC. The previous owner said he'd had some trouble with spoke nipples breaking, and that the store had recommended a stronger brass nipples.
http://kotavelo.com.au/store/kotavelo-r21-wheelset.html
So, today i busted one (rear), wheel is well out of true, but it rode home.
I guess i should redo the whole wheel with decent nipples, which, looking at the broken one, do look quite crap.
Otherwise, i'm quite happy with the wheel. Light, cheap and rolls and sounds nice.
Of course i should have bought a more exe wheel, but thats done now.

So could anyone suggest the best nipples for the job, and an ebay link.
The front wheel may need doing too eventually, so probably best to buy at least, say, 50 of them (24+20).
I have a mate - Koen - here who will do it for me for not too much i hope.
(Bike is a white / orange featured Altamira 2.3, just under 8kg with the kotavelos. I weigh 63kg).

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10speedsemiracer
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby 10speedsemiracer » Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:47 pm

I imagine these DT Swiss brass will do the trick :

Image

http://www.abbotsfordcycles.com.au/dt-s ... ilver_p430

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Duck!
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby Duck! » Mon Nov 05, 2018 10:59 am

Brass nipples will help, but the root problem is the spokes are too short.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

stevenaaus
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Tue Nov 06, 2018 9:20 am

Hmmm - Cheers.

I found a nice tool to hold the flat spokes, and could almost give it a go myself, but will let Owen do it i guess.

stevenaaus
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Fri Nov 09, 2018 6:51 pm

The spokes didn't seem too short.. ? They probably run into the rims by a few mm.
I just picked up some brass nipples from my holiday/Giant LBS.
They definitely inspire more confidence. Takes a little bit of time to replace each one.. losing a few in the rim hollow slows you down.

Koen is a handy guy alright - cheers Mate. He pulled the wheel into pretty good shape (touch wood) with his ten thousand year old truing stand.

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Duck!
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby Duck! » Fri Nov 09, 2018 9:44 pm

How far into the nipples are the spokes threading? Breaking the heads off the nipples is a classic sign of the spokes being too short and not threading up into the nipple leads. The tip of the spoke should be pretty well flush with the slot in the head when properly tensioned.
I had a thought, but it got run over as it crossed my mind.

stevenaaus
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Fri Nov 09, 2018 10:49 pm

Duck! wrote:How far into the nipples are the spokes threading? Breaking the heads off the nipples is a classic sign of the spokes being too short and not threading up into the nipple leads.
Ok, cheers.
The tip of the spoke should be pretty well flush with the slot in the head when properly tensioned.
Yeah ... It's all taped up now, and i can't say. Owen gave it a good tighten, and the nipple is definitely coming down over all the spoke threads. The wheel when i bought it was well and evenly tensioned. The old alum nipples did look very slight to me, and left quite a bit of loose white powder on the spoke thread when removed (which i wiped/blew off). The wheel/s only meant to be 1000 km old when i got it.. it was very straight and nicely tensioned anyway - till i broke the nipple.

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AUbicycles
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby AUbicycles » Sat Nov 10, 2018 4:23 am

1000km but already corrosion.. I wonder if they were left in the weather or got a heavy dose of sea spray as I wouldn't expect this for young wheels.

The good news is that you are better off with brass anyway.
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stevenaaus
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:35 pm

Cheers. It certainly looked like some sort of oxidization... but Koen said it could be some sort of thread locking powder/coating, so I'm not sure. Wheels were in good nick otherwise... no road chips on the transfers or anything else i could see. Might have just been a bad batch of nipples or something. The front wheel nipples look shinier, and i'm not super keen to repeat the process with the front untill i break something.

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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Tue Jun 11, 2019 7:29 pm

Anyway, since last post I've put some serious miles into the wheels, on some dodgy roads too, and they've gone great. No more nipple pops and the rims have stayed pretty straight too.

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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby jacks1071 » Thu Jan 27, 2022 4:42 pm

stevenaaus wrote:
Sat Nov 10, 2018 5:35 pm
Cheers. It certainly looked like some sort of oxidization... but Koen said it could be some sort of thread locking powder/coating, so I'm not sure. Wheels were in good nick otherwise... no road chips on the transfers or anything else i could see. Might have just been a bad batch of nipples or something. The front wheel nipples look shinier, and i'm not super keen to repeat the process with the front untill i break something.
We don't use threadlock on our wheels, is not usually any need if tensioned correctly. Glad you got them sorted out and thanks for posting the update :-)
Our Website is: http://www.kotavelo.com.au" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Find us on Facebook by searching for "Kotavelo"

stevenaaus
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby stevenaaus » Thu Jan 27, 2022 8:44 pm

They're great wheels for the money. I bought a new pair just a few months ago, and they've been faultless.
https://kotavelo.com.au/store/kotavelo- ... elset.html

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MattyK
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Re: Kotavelo R21 wheel problem

Postby MattyK » Fri Jan 28, 2022 8:20 am

Bought some R42s recently and wasn't too happy that there were a couple of very loose spokes on the rear. Had to retension the whole wheel, which took it out of true a bit because the error was really due to the rim not being very straight around the joint.

They are also notably heavier than claimed (>2000g) but I wasn't buying them because they were light so that doesn't bother me much.

What didn't impress me is that they cut the above information from my review I posted to their website.

On the positive, they do spin nicely, are even wider than claimed (25mm), and haven't given me any issues.

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