Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
Do they just look unsightly or are they a lot more likely to break?
What's wrong with rusty spokes?
- Thread starter Chris S
- Start date
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Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
Both.
Ajax Bay
Guru
- Location
- East Devon
^^^^ +1 And if the wheel needs truing and they need to be adjusted, quite often the nipple is seized, so one can't.
Gatters
Senior Member
- Location
- Right Here
I wouldn't say a lot more likely to break, maybe just a little more likely and broken spokes isn't a common occurrence in my book
anyhow, theres degrees of rusty isn't there, has the bike been in the sea for a number of years?
anyhow, theres degrees of rusty isn't there, has the bike been in the sea for a number of years?
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Rough, unsightly and very likely to break. They are rough because they are zinc-plated. Unsightly because they are rusty and likely to break because they are made from coat hanger wire.
Proper spokes are made from stainless steel, cold forged and plenty strong and durable and pretty.
Proper spokes are made from stainless steel, cold forged and plenty strong and durable and pretty.
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
some times some rubbing with wire wool or a wire brush and they can come up quite good
Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
That's what they told me at the VD clinic.
They might be a little more likely to break, but they're not all suddenly going to break at once. So if the wheel is still true and you don't mind the look of them, I wouldn't worry about it and just carry on riding your bike. The way to make sure they break is to start messing with them when you don't need to.
OP
OP
Chris S
Legendary Member
- Location
- Birmingham
They're a good theft deterrent on a pub bike.
Dec66
A gentlemanly pootler, these days
- Location
- West Wickham
Why did you take your bike to a VD clinic? Problem with the bottom bracket?
Smokin Joe
Squire
- Location
- Bare headed cyclist, Smoker
It had a bad case of Gearnorear after a coming together with a mountain bike.Why did you take your bike to a VD clinic? Problem with the bottom bracket?
Ian H
Ancient randonneur
Anyone else remember when stainless first became available? They looked nice, but that was about all. They were brittle and unreliable. Rustless spokes (as they were known), on the other hand, did the job properly (and still do), even if the zinc coating is less than perfect. Mind you, I have seen an ancient bike that had been hung up in a garage for many years, and many of the spokes rusted right through like sea-side railings.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Unfortunately I was there. The first stainless were rubbish but the supplier, Sandvik soon managed to figure out the problems and supplied vacuum degassed stainless wire to the manufacturers.
It is not the zinc coating itself that is so bad but the poor steel underneath. I say that with reference to cheaper bikes only, I have no experience with older performance bike spokes with zinc plating. However, I remember chromed spokes. These were super shiny and basically designed as showpieces for those velodrome races where the riders would show off their shaven and polished legs as well as shiny wheels. These were not good spokes.
