Park Tool ND-1 Nipple Driver Tool

very high quality, but you probably don’t need it.

Much to say about this park tool, like all park tools that I have, it works just as it should. You use this to go from the inside of the rim to the nipple to screw the nipple to the spoke. It's designed to only take the nipple to a certain depth and then you use a nipple wrench on the spoke from the open side of the wheel. This worked great it takes a little bit of getting used to but all in all, it's a great tool.

I ordered this tool to help speed up the process a bit when rebuilding my rear wheel for my mountain bike, and it did help me quite a bit. I would not advise purchasing this tool unless you plan on building many, many, many wheels in the future, because you can can achieve with fingers when this tool aims to do. It brings all the spoke nipples an certain point on the spoke threads, just as it is designed to do. For that task, it gets 4 stars. Most of the time I just end up replacing the wheel entirely unless there is a jewel of a hub in the center of a trashed rim. My fellow bicycle mechanic friends have left this tool in a drawer some place and simply use fingers. The reality is that we do replace broken spokes regularly, but rarely build wheels. I wanted to dock this product one star because of how infrequently I build wheels, however that is a personal issue, rather than an issue with the product at hand. Overall, it is a tool that has a very specific purpose, and like tools with specific purposes, sees far less time out of my tool box than a majority of my other tools that can tools. Get it if you plan to build many wheels in the future, however do not buy it otherwise, as it can quickly become a small paper weight.

I don’t build a lot of wheels but this driver sure does make it go faster and easier. I just used the driver a couple weeks ago. I had two rear wheels for my bike. Identical other than the hub. The rim with the good hub had a bunch of flat spots repaired. I didn’t want to use the other wheel because the hub had 3 problems in a year. All covered by warranty but no thank you. It’s a good spare. I took the rim and spokes off the good one with the junk hub and built the good hub into the new rim and spokes. Then laced the old rim and spokes to the junk hub so I would still have a spare. This driver made that go so much faster because I wasn’t just cutting the spokes and building one wheel. Took apart 2 wheels and put two back together.

I had to do some extensive service on one of my bike wheels, and ordered up one of these to avoid spending a whole evening tightening up spoke nipples. Works great, costs a lot for what it is and the tube it comes in ( prominently marked "nipple driver") is worth it alone for the puerile jokes that follow. I was in a local home improvement store afterwards and saw a $6 "Speed Driver" screwdriver that was essentially the same thing minus the little prong in the center to keep it centered in the nipple. I should think a few minutes with a rotary tool or maybe brazing a bit of wire on would allow you to make your own.

I don’t know how I’ve gotten by for so many years without a nipple driver. This one has the quality and ergonomics I expect from Park, and it makes lacing up a wheel a snap.

It's a Park Tool. Relaced four wheels and this saved me so much time.

I only needed this tool for one step of the wheel building process but my word it was worth it. It made it all go so much faster in doing the initial threading and tensioning of each spoke nipple.