2009 Next LaJolla bike with coaster brake. Purchased in poor yet somehow still rideable condition at auction by my brother so no known history. Had knobby tires on it but I wanted to swap the tires for street treads.
Front wheel was swapped out with steel wheel marked "Roadmaster" when I got the bike. shoulda been my first clue...
After pulling tire I was inspecting and cleaning the rim and noticed the rim strip looked oddly bumpy where the nipples are so I looked underneath and lots of corrosion around the nipples. Both white powder from the aluminum rim and good old brown rust from the steel nipple. Thought I would get by with cleaning the rust off and paint on som conversion coating but rust is very bad and some nipples have very little flanged head left so I'm surprised its so unsafe as the knobby tire and tube were newer and if I had wanted to I probably would of run it cause it ran true with no broken spokes.
Surprise! Gently probing the rusty heads of the nipples, 2 of the spokes broke off at the coaster. Either the spokes are defective on the hub end, or the spokes were stretched by the corrosion? Whatever steps Next took to prevent the steel spokes and nipples from reacting with the aluminum wheel was a failure.
Front wheel was swapped out with steel wheel marked "Roadmaster" when I got the bike. shoulda been my first clue...
After pulling tire I was inspecting and cleaning the rim and noticed the rim strip looked oddly bumpy where the nipples are so I looked underneath and lots of corrosion around the nipples. Both white powder from the aluminum rim and good old brown rust from the steel nipple. Thought I would get by with cleaning the rust off and paint on som conversion coating but rust is very bad and some nipples have very little flanged head left so I'm surprised its so unsafe as the knobby tire and tube were newer and if I had wanted to I probably would of run it cause it ran true with no broken spokes.
Surprise! Gently probing the rusty heads of the nipples, 2 of the spokes broke off at the coaster. Either the spokes are defective on the hub end, or the spokes were stretched by the corrosion? Whatever steps Next took to prevent the steel spokes and nipples from reacting with the aluminum wheel was a failure.
