What's wrong with rusty spokes?

[Chris S]

Do they just look unsightly or are they a lot more likely to break?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Both.

 

[Ajax Bay]

^^^^ +1 And if the wheel needs truing and they need to be adjusted, quite often the nipple is seized, so one can't.

 

[Gatters]

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?

 

[Yellow Saddle]

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.

 

[biggs682]

Do they just look unsightly or are they a lot more likely to break?

some times some rubbing with wire wool or a wire brush and they can come up quite good

 

[Smokin Joe]

some times some rubbing with wire wool or a wire brush and they can come up quite good

That's what they told me at the VD clinic.

 

[400bhp]

What's right with them.

 

[Mile195]

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.

 

[Chris S]

What's right with them.

They're a good theft deterrent on a pub bike.

 

[Dec66]

That's what they told me at the VD clinic.

Why did you take your bike to a VD clinic? Problem with the bottom bracket?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Why did you take your bike to a VD clinic? Problem with the bottom bracket?

It had a bad case of Gearnorear after a coming together with a mountain bike.

 

[Ian H]

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.

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]

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.

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.

 

[speccy1]

I`ve never had spokes go rusty