Re-build wheel, or just some of the spokes?

[Novocaine88]

Hi, recently two of the nipples on the end of my spokes broke off. So i went and got some replacement nipples to fix it.
Unfortunately when fixing them, i noticed some other spokes were a bit loose, and when pulling at them pretty lightly another one broke off at the nipple. Then finally when trying to tighten another nipple that broke too...

Bit of a disaster really. So my question is, aside from fact that the nipples seem to be breaking rather easily. On a regular wheel where i had only one spoke break, should i completely rebuild the wheel again, spoke by spoke? Or would it be acceptable and safe to fix that one spoke?

When looking at the spoke nipples from outside the rim i saw they looked pretty rotten, so i think im going to order a new set of nipples anyway and re-build the wheel, but i would just like to know if its necessary to do this if all the spokes looked OK, but one happened to break.

Thanks

 

[amaferanga]

If you replace the nipples then you'll have to effectively do a complete rebuild anyway. I'd do it with the existing spokes (with new brass nipples) and then see how you go. Have you built and trued a wheel before?

 

[Novocaine88]

I thought as much.

No i haven't built or trued a wheel before, but ive watched a few very helpful videos that show the basic process as being relatively easy. Just the fine tuning and truing thats the difficult part to do. I've got the tools for it, and one video i saw said that using the forks upside down can be a half decent replacement for a proper truing stand. Although the only thing i wouldnt be able to check would be the dish and the proper tension. The tension i can only assume from the videos showing the amount of threads of the spoke to show, and the difficulty of bending the spokes by hand. I'm hoping that from what ive seen i should be able to make a decent enough go at it myself.