Nuts about presta valves

[mark a.]

Who here doesn't bother with the nuts that hold presta valves onto the rim?

I've long since chucked the valve cap (even the nice yellow Conti ones) and now wondering whether to bother with the nut.

[SteveHunter]

A few of my tubes aren't even threaded so can't take nuts. I don't bother with them.

[Vorpal]

I use them to hold the valve in place while I put pump on. Until the innertube has som air in it, putting the pump on it just pushes it in. Once I've got air in the inner tube, though I loosen them.

Last discussion about this....
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67690

[mark a.]

Last discussion about this....
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=67690

Ah, thanks Vorpal! I might not just bother with them then. I've always coped with Schrader valves not having such nuts, and all mine do is either stress the valve / tube interface or come loose.

[Brucey]

if valve is at an angle then you already have a problem that will tear the valve out of the tube; the nut won't stop it!

Plenty of tubes (designed for 8-12 bar) come with plain stems, no nuts.

cheers

[iandriver]

Rule #60

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

[Brucey]

Who here doesn't bother with the nuts that hold presta valves onto the rim?

I've long since chucked the valve cap (even the nice yellow Conti ones) and now wondering whether to bother with the nut.

you need one dustcap per bike for about half the year. On the rear wheel, to stop the valve from filling up with winter road crud. If I only had yellow dustcaps I'd leave them off, unless I had an all yellow bike, and then I might be too busy wondering how my life turned out like that to actually ride anywhere.

Although the valve nut is pretty much a waste of time in terms of keeping your tyres and tubes happy, it does have a marginal benefit in foul weather/MTB use; it deters too much water/other crud from getting into the hollow section of the rim via the valve drilling.

cheers

[RickH]

The only time I've used a valve nut in years is to keep a (severed) valve in place to keep the holes lined up while fitting rim tape (plastic continuous type).

On a related issue - I've had a pair of wheels re-rimmed & the new rims came with shraeder sized holes. The bike shop has supplied alloy inserts with a slight collar at one end (like these). They said they usually are fitted from the outside & held in place with a nut on the valve but I can't see any reason not to fit them from the inside under the rim tape. The inserts have rounded smooth edges and, as I say, will be under the tape. Does that seem reasonable?

Rick.

[Vorpal]

The only time I've used a valve nut in years is to keep a (severed) valve in place to keep the holes lined up while fitting rim tape (plastic continuous type).

On a related issue - I've had a pair of wheels re-rimmed & the new rims came with shraeder sized holes. The bike shop has supplied alloy inserts with a slight collar at one end (like these). They said they usually are fitted from the outside & held in place with a nut on the valve but I can't see any reason not to fit them from the inside under the rim tape. The inserts have rounded smooth edges and, as I say, will be under the tape. Does that seem reasonable?

Rick.

I'm not sure, but you might want to start your own thread?

[iandriver]

Although the valve nut is pretty much a waste of time in terms of keeping your tyres and tubes happy, it does have a marginal benefit in foul weather/MTB use; it deters too much water/other crud from getting into the hollow section of the rim via the valve drilling.

cheers

I might actually do that with a soft washer underneath. Did we have that in the uses for an old inner tube thread?

[eileithyia]

Since having a visitation and being unable to do undo the nut as it was adhered on..... I stopped using them, but Phil insists on using them....

[Brucey]

The only time I've used a valve nut in years is to keep a (severed) valve in place to keep the holes lined up while fitting rim tape (plastic continuous type).

On a related issue - I've had a pair of wheels re-rimmed & the new rims came with shraeder sized holes. The bike shop has supplied alloy inserts with a slight collar at one end (like these). They said they usually are fitted from the outside & held in place with a nut on the valve but I can't see any reason not to fit them from the inside under the rim tape. The inserts have rounded smooth edges and, as I say, will be under the tape. Does that seem reasonable?.

FWIW the thing you should be most worried about is that the valve doesn't come out of the tube. To prevent this you need something (something other than the tube near the valve) that directly supports the valve stem inside the rim. I'm not sure that an insert as you describe like this;



will do that if fitted externally, I think it needs to be fitted internally and in some cases I would file it slightly (and/or counterbore the rim slightly) so that the insert didn't stick up too much inside the rim well. Call me 'slightly obsessive' if you like but when I've permanently converted similar rims I've often turned up a special insert that both supports the valve properly and (when it is then bonded into the rim) prevents water from getting inside the rim too. I've even converted some Presta-drilled MTB rims like this too, simply because the rim fills up with crud otherwise, and often the inner wall of the rim has an oversized hole in it which will otherwise cause valve failures.

I think you could bond an alumium insert of the type above into the rim too, and that this would make a nice job of it. Not so great if you need to fit a schrader tube in an emergency mind...

cheers

[PaulS]

Looks good, think I'll do this with the aluminium inserts. What do bond it in with?

[531colin]

Dunno about bonding sleeves into rims, but I've had a valve bonded immovably into one of those alloy sleeves, by salt corrosion.

[Brucey]

I've used epoxy resin to bond a sleeve but realistically anything that is going to make a watertight seal is going to be good enough, provided the insert has a shoulder on it (as it should do).

I've even thought about using blu-tac, which would have the benefit of making it possible to remove the insert quickly should the need arise.

If you are wanting to keep water out of the hollow part of the rim, I think it is a good idea to treat each hole in the rim with something like waxoyl too. It is easy enough to run it in using a hairdryer.

I've seen corrosion between brass valve stems and aluminium rims/ferrules too. I think if the valve stem cannot be wiggled from side to side at all (which you can check for when you pump up the tyres) then it is time to free the valve stem off before it nips up completely.

cheers