Bulging Nips

My wheels have old 1998 mavic x221 rims. The front rim has small bulges at the spoke nipples, so tension too high I suppose. There's no sign of cracking and the bulges are really small- if I just back the tension off will the rims be ok to ride so long as I regularly check for hairline cracks...?

I should say I may be responsible as gave the wheels a true when I got tyhe bike and also gave all the nips a 1/4 turn as I thought the tension felt a bit soft- too much for old mavic alloy?

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anyone?

I've had some tension put through my nips over the years as I worked on the same logic that tighter is stronger, and I never had any issues with bulging or cracking.

Is it all the way around or just a few?

I guess it can't do any harm to back them off a fraction of a turn to drop it getting worse, rather that than pull it all the way through.

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Just wear and tear, leave it, if it worries you get a new rim.
The bulge has already backed it off.

You'll see marks on a lot of rims, some bulge a bit, some get pretty stress patterns around them, some like 517/717 mavics start to crack and they have eylets.

But post a picture up.

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Great opportunity to try wheel building, get some new rims and swap the spokes and hubs into them. That is my winter project for my summer ride.

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davidj":ke2jtu0c said:

Great opportunity to try wheel building, get some new rims and swap the spokes and hubs into them. That is my winter project for my summer ride.

Click to expand...

thanks David,

I've built wheels, I did a 3 day course last year. I built a set of touring wheels shortly after, I've done 600 miles on them so far. The rear has little bulges too... The company who supplied the rims,spokes,hubs etc told me what tension they build theirs to and I did mine the same. After the rear showed signs of bulge I contacted the manufacturer and the max tensions they provided were way under that which the shop use. I've reset them to proper tension. So lesson learned use the recommended tensions from the makers of the rim. I was just wondering if they were still safe to use although they are not getting any worse.
I came by a set of ritchey/WTB speedmaster wheels and the spoke tension on those are rock hard and they look fine...
All the best with your rim change