Spoke painting experiment.

[Alembicbassman]

So I got these wheels for free, they're not the finest quality, Stock Quando hubs on double wall rims. The spokes were quite rusty, and were originally painted black so after cleaning with wire wool and Scotch pads they were a bit patchy.

Rather than re-spoke them I'm having a go at a re-spray. I removed most of the old paint and scabs with 120 grit paper and am applying a 2 coat finish, 1 primer and 1 satin black. I'm not going for perfect finish, but should be a lot better than it was. I've done car wheels before, but not bike wheels.

Finished article. Better than expected, the prep time is the worst, painting took a couple of hours with drying time, cleaning and masking off took about 3 hours to do. Paint ( 1x primer and 1x satin black) cost £6.

 

[All uphill]

Interesting!

Given the spokes were rusty I would have replaced them, to avoid breakages in future. As these are 36 spoke wheels you probably will get away with it.

Good luck!

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Hmmm - sounds like an idea

I wonder if you can get reflective paint - and whether or not it would be effective on a spoke at night?

 

[Blue Hills]

Sorry, this is just so wrong.

 

[lazybloke]

Sorry, this is just so wrong.

Added too many grams?

 

[lazybloke]

Or just that the spokes are old tired weak rusted, delete as applicable?

 

[Blue Hills]

Added too many grams?

no - painting over potential issues.
paint will probably look degraded after a while anyway.
And it smacks rather too much of painted rims which I also think are a bad idea - tho some supposedly cool hipsters favour them.

 

[Alembicbassman]

They'll be going on a 'for sale' bike as I have a nice set of Mavics that I want to keep.

 

[lazybloke]

no - painting over potential issues.
paint will probably look degraded after a while anyway.
And it smacks rather too much of painted rims which I also think are a bad idea - tho some supposedly cool hipsters favour them.

Fair enough, but in 50 years I've yet to have a broken spoke, so I have little fear of "potential issues".
And if they look degraded later on, there's always another pot of paint in the cupboard under the stairs. Some people might even be bothered enough to colour-match.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The best trick is just to coat the spoke nearest the valve with reflective paint.

 

[Alembicbassman]

I was told fatigue has a lot to do with breakage, if the tension is wrong, the elbow (where the metal has already been stressed in the bending process) becomes weak and breaks. Surface rust is an oxide layer, the oxide takes up a much larger volume than the original metal so looks worse than it is. I've seen structural re-bar in concrete that has looked really bad, but has still been safe after being cleaned up and treated. Perforated rust (as anyone who has owned an old Japanese car) is another matter.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Perforated rust (as anyone who has owned an old Japanese car) is another matter.

I dunno - I had an old mark 1 Fiesta that could give any Japanese car a run for its money in the rust stakes

of course Lancia may be able to beat them all in that game!

 

[Alembicbassman]

I dunno - I had an old mark 1 Fiesta that could give any Japanese car a run for its money in the rust stakes

of course Lancia may be able to beat them all in that game!

The metal on those old Fords seemed to be a lot thicker, my Mk5 Cortina kept going with a few patches. My uncle's Datsun 120 Y and brother's Subaru Impreza just dissolved.

 

[Chris S]

So I got these wheels for free, they're not the finest quality, Stock Quando hubs on double wall rims. The spokes were quite rusty, and were originally painted black so after cleaning with wire wool and Scotch pads they were a bit patchy.

Rather than re-spoke them I'm having a go at a re-spray. I removed most of the old paint and scabs with 120 grit paper and am applying a 2 coat finish, 1 primer and 1 satin black. I'm not going for perfect finish, but should be a lot better than it was. I've done car wheels before, but not bike wheels.

View attachment 625469

Finished article. Better than expected, the prep time is the worst, painting took a couple of hours with drying time, cleaning and masking off took about 3 hours to do. Paint ( 1x primer and 1x satin black) cost £6.

View attachment 626219

Can you still adjust the spoke nipples? There will probably be some thread with paint on it.

 

[Alembicbassman]

Can you still adjust the spoke nipples? There will probably be some thread with paint on it.

The rims were running true before I took the wheels off the bike, the nipples were probably a bit stuck through corrosion anyway. Best to attack them from inside the rim with WD40 and a screwdriver. There was no thread exposed when painted. Hopefully they won't run out. They have 36 spokes each and weigh 2.5kg, so must be pretty robust. At the moment they're just hung up in the shed as a spare set.