I'm about to build up a pair of the skinny Rigida SX100 rims (all black) onto formula hubs also in black with gold nipples (to match the rigida logos). I'm undecided as to weather to use black spokes or plain shiney stainless ones. Most if not all the bike will be black also.

what would you go for black or silver spokes (probably use ACI ones from cyclebasket to keep costs down)??

been thinking the same thing for a future build, basically come to the conclusion that black is for stealth, silver to give a bit of bling!

which in fairness isnt a conclusion at all more just a summary of my reasons....

Some people think spokes are compromised by anodizing. I can't say I've noticed any difference in fatigue resistance between black and silver per se.

It's a Bucks Fizz situation.

I'd go silver, it will look nice

yeah silver

+1

but black scratches quickly and looks shit.

silver is more hetero

indeed so.

Silver.

silver,
black apparently shortens the life/strength of the spoke, fuck knows why, some one told me.

+1

black on black looks very stealthy

i think black, sorry!

I like the look of black wheels, I don't know about the life/strength of the spokes, but sound I bit of a myth, innt?

old school says silver, but black is back.

silver.

black is faster

I've heard the anodizing can weaken spokes too (but I've never broken a spoke on my own wheel builds) I've also heard the finish it leaves can cause rubbing spokes to creak more than plain unfinished stainless. I honestly cannot see either of these issues really being an issue.

I think I'm leaning towards black, or maybe 3 leading in silver and 3 trailing in black?

in the grand scheme of things .. it's not really that important.

just make up your mind and HTFU.

If anodizing weakened the spokes, folk like DT Swiss whose business and reputation lives and dies on their spokes (and that reputation is good) would either not anodize their spokes black or find an alternative method for blacking up their spokes.

Yes, black spokes are around 3% faster than silver spokes.

dt did some ti-metal matrix GOLD spokes a few years ago, highly expensive, but ultimate in bling!

What about powder coating spokes?

Nope, not really important at all, but things like this pass the time at work :p

agreed, I cannot imagine it is an issue, even if it does weaken them they must still be plenty strong enough

so if I go with black leading and silver trailing I should be 3% faster in the forward direction, bit like Sheldon's 'power wheels' maybe I should go black trailing on the rear so I can skid 3% harder???

Thought about that, I wa tempted to do a set white and have black hubs and rims, black nipples and white spokes, PITA preparing them though, I would meed a conductive stand (bit of steel box section) with 72 holes drilled in it and tapped to M2 to thread the spokes into, to earth them for the powder coating to stick and prevent the threads getting covered. At some point I will do powdercoated spokes but I'll go for a much sillier colour.

Are your gold nipples alloy? Lots of lube and a careful hand needed with the spoke wrench to prevent seizing and rounding off the nipples.

Yep alloy, I have built rims with plain alloy nipples before, plenty of linseed oil on the spoke threads and nipples, and a PROPER fitting spoke key is a must, I use one of these which I have had no problems with:
http://sports.ciao.co.uk/Buddy_Spoke...e_Key__6837994

Black all the way...
AFAIK Black DTs are anodised and will scratch and black Sapims aren't so won't... The Sapims are baked in some kinda hi-tech way that colours the metal itself so it won't compromise the spoke's strength... This may be marketing BS, but it's what I was told/read...
Black is of course also invisible to radar... ;)

I'm looking at using ACI stainless double butted spokes from cyclebasket, my wallet isn't quite DT sized this month.

ACI have a good rep. I've had no problems with mine :)

I've just had some black rims, black hubs and SILVER spokes built up - looks ream!

[COLOR=black][FONT='Trebuchet MS']About the powder coating, I thought about it to, but my conclusion was that the powder coating will increase the thickness of the spoke, and maybe give problems with the holes in the hub; also the rubbing with powder coating will be much more difficult due to the nature of the coating: and I don’t know about bake a spoke…[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT='Trebuchet MS'] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT='Trebuchet MS']Will be nice, but I don’t know if make able.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT='Trebuchet MS'] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT='Trebuchet MS'] [/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT='Trebuchet MS']What about rims? Do you think a rim will be OK to powder coated? [/FONT][/COLOR]

About the powder coating, I thought about it too, but my conclusion was that the powder coating will increase the thickness of the spoke, and maybe give problems with the holes in the hub; also the rubbing with powder coating will be much more difficult due to the nature of the coating: and I don’t know about bake a spoke…

Will be nice, but I don’t know if make able


What about rims? Do you think a rim will be OK to powder coated?

the thickness of powder coat is minimal at low voltage, not enough to cause problems IMHO. high voltage coating would be thick enough to, we did a bike frame of mine and got about .5mm thickness of powder, I also did some bolts at low voltage and the powder on the threads caused no issues.

the heat is about 200degC, steel and aluminium are fine.

Anyone found a place that anodises?

Could be fun.

There was someone on a MTB forum that did small batch annodizing for reasonable money, I can look up his details. Andizing only works on none ferrous stuff IIRC so aluminium and titanium are fair game but steel is not (so no stainless spokes) there are other plating methods for making stainless go black but the really good ones use lead so the ROHS rulings make them VERY expensive.

Find an electroplaters in Yell.com and call them, see what they can advise, where I get my fixings their local electroplaters charge £25/batch to do stuff in Nickle a passive black, but that is
a rate for a LOT of regular work.

I went for Black ACI double butted in the end.