help quick! snapped spoke nipple!

great weather, so decided to take a brisk ride, mostly road, some paved paths and some gravel paths. on the way back on the road, i hear a loud snapping/ping noise from the front, and then a repetitive clanking. slowed down to a stop and a spoke has snapped at the rim. walked the rest of the way home in hopes of salvaging my Mavic M231.

now home, it's in fact the nipple that has snapped, within the eyelet hole to be exact. the rim is warped so there's a long wobble so i'm not very optimistic.

do people think i can salvage the rim? should i detention it to increase the chance of salvage? and if so how should i do it? or is this a lost cause?

took me some time to find this decent condition M231 laced to an M900 hub, and i've only had it for a few rides. :cry:

You should be able to save it. The first step is to lace it up and true it as best you can. If you can't bring it in then usually supporting the rest of the rim and bending it down (a couple of good shoves with your weight) should do it.

i'll be dropping by a LBS to see if they can fix it tomorrow. i don't have the know how or equipment to do it myself. i do have a spoke wrench to make minor adjustments if a spoke or two are loose. just thought maybe i should loosen the tension on some/all of the remaining spokes to stop the rim from worsening.

Are they alloy nipples? If they are then this is one reason that I don't use them. When they get old they become brittle. Mind you I've had my fair share of snapped brass nipples as well.

It should just be a matter of fitting a new nipple and re-truing the wheel. As it's the front it won't take as much of a pounding as the rear, so you should be OK.

If you have any more go then it'll be a good idea to replace them all, just to be safe.

Trying to tension the other spokes will probably make the buckle worse. It's better to leave it as it is.

Don't start messing with the other nipples.

The same happened to my brother in laws bike & it was a really easy fix. The wobble on the rim is from that spoke, so that's what you need to fix.

Book from library -Mel Allwood Mountain Bike Maintenance. New spoke from LBS, bit of advice including don't mess with the other spokes.
Fitted new spoke & nipple - book really useful- lots of bending & swearing.

Tightened nipple part way- wheel back on bike - using brake blocks to true wheel - kept tightening until it was true again.

Perfect & really easy - anyone could do it

i've taken off the front wheel and left it alone till i get a chance to get it fixed.

i've taco'd a rim before but this is my first ever broken spoke. appreciate all the advice!

cheers!