Spoke nipple trapped

[Dwn]

A spoke on my rear wheel detached itself from the rim today, necessitating a long walk back to the station. The nipple appears to have dropped into the rim and I can’t remove it, so looking for some suggestions from the cyclechat experts.

Having removed the rim tape, I’ve tried jiggling the wheel about, rotating it on a stand, trying to trap it with a screwdriver, and even using a vacuum cleaner. Nothing has worked and I can still hear the little swine rattling about inside the rim when I turn or shake it.

Any alternatives to these actions?


Thanks

 

[Cycleops]

Sounds painful. Only way I can think of is to enlarge one of the rim holes and persuade it out with a lot of giggling.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

when this happened to me I eventually shook it out through the valve hole, but I did ride with it rattling round the rim for a few days before I got it out.

 

[fossyant]

Keep trying.

 

[Brandane]

A magnet?

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Combination of above. Shake it with valve hole at bottom. Stick a magnetic screwdriver in the valve hole to pull nipple out.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Oh and if you carry a spoke key you could have adjusted tension in surrounding spokes to get wheel true enough to keep riding. A single spoke failure should not be enough of itself to make a wheel unrideable

 

[Dwn]

The magnet did it - thanks @Brandane. I had assumed (incorrectly) that the nipple was aluminium and a magnet wouldn’t work.

Yeah, need to learn how to adjust spoke tension but it’s not something I’ve had to do in the past. I’ve had more wheel problems in the last two years than in the previous 40, so so need to spend some time on that.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Most nipples are brass as they are self lubricating and just work. Aluminium ones tend to seize.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Could someone explain how a magnet will attract a brass or aluminium nipple, as posts above either recommend or suggest was the OP's solution?
x 2 for not letting a broken spoke stop a ride. Twist the spoke free at one end round its adjacent fellow and open the brakes (if calipers).

 

[rrarider]

Could someone explain how a magnet will attract a brass or aluminium nipple, as posts above either recommend or suggest was the OP's solution?

Until I read all of the thread, I was about to suggest a neodymium magnet, but with the caveat, that the spoke had broken, leaving part of it inside the nipple. I went out to test the adherence of a magnet on my spokes; it stuck very strongly on my shopper bike and only slightly on my custom built road bike's wheels.

 

[Ajax Bay]

Good point about the threaded bit of spoke assumed still screwed into the errant nipple. I think experiments are required to see whether this amount of stainless steel could generate the attractive force required to pull the nipple to the valve hole. Gravity seems more powerful, as the Merciless one implied.

 

[Dwn]

Apparently (according to google) even very small amounts of iron or steel in a brass alloy are enough to make the entire thing magnetic.