Black or Silver spokes

[Cloverleaf]

When black spokes started appearing they looked awful. I can deal with it on current high end wheelsets etc, but older wheels should be handbuilt & feature silver DT spokes. I guess I am saying Black spokes, to me are a dead giveaway that a wheel is pre-built.

I guess it depends on the eye of the beholder! Pre-2000 I'd say silver, post-2000 I've used black spokes for every wheel I've built, pretty much because the spoke ends blend into the black hubs. Mostly that's through choice but even if I wanted to, just try finding straight pull silver double butted decent quality spokes easily (and on wheels that take a hammering, easily found replacements are a key consideration!) Then again if I'd not been getting black spokes at trade for the last set of wheels with silver hubs I'd have gone DT silver competition spokes for them.

 

[wynne]

I work as a wheel builder. Silver is making a resurgence - apparently hipster-driven. Silver spokes are much nicer to work with. The finish on black spokes transfers to your hands.

I tend to build all my own wheels with silver Sapim lasers. I bit faffy to build with, but lovely spokes - basically an unflattened CX ray.

 

[jim haseltine]

All my wheels whether black rims/silver rims/gun metal rims, no matter what hubs (again, black/silver/gunmetal) have self-colour stainless steel spokes EXCEPT a used Fulcrum rear wheel in 'Disaster Area' black-on-black with black spokes which I bought cheap for turbo trainer use - and that was a rubbish build with stupid G3 spoking and the drive side spokes just crossed rather than interlaced which offended my eye so much that I took it apart and rebuilt it with the drive side properly laced. If I'd had enough stainless spokes long enough at the time they'd have gone into it.

 

[clubby]

I guess I am saying Black spokes, to me are a dead giveaway that a wheel is pre-built.

You mean machine built, which there is nothing wrong with these days. The times of shoddy machine built wheels is long gone. Can't remember the last time I had to take a spoke key to any of my wheels. Well actually I can. The set of hand built wheels on my Santa Cruz, which was so low tension that a single snapped spoke threw the whole thing out of shape. Current mass produced DT wheels on my enduro bike have done two years and quite a few races with no truing or tensioning needed.

As for colour, there shouldn't be any. Either black or silver, but whichever it is they must all be that same on both wheels. Anyone with coloured nipples deserves to have their nipples dyed the same colour. There is also a special place in hell for those responsible for alloy nipples.

 

[Twozaskars]

Nobody would like my old P7 then?

 

[hamster]

So wrong it's right. It's carried off by the black chainset, decals and the contrasting frame colour.

 

[bikeworkshop]

I work as a wheel builder. Silver is making a resurgence - apparently hipster-driven. Silver spokes are much nicer to work with. The finish on black spokes transfers to your hands.

I've never noticed this - black spokes only ever using dt comp bb - although I don't build many of the shop wheels.
I'll ask my colleagues tho.

My hands are hard and leathery

 

[wynne]

You mean machine built, which there is nothing wrong with these days. The times of shoddy machine built wheels is long gone. Can't remember the last time I had to take a spoke key to any of my wheels. Well actually I can. The set of hand built wheels on my Santa Cruz, which was so low tension that a single snapped spoke threw the whole thing out of shape. Current mass produced DT wheels on my enduro bike have done two years and quite a few races with no truing or tensioning needed.

As for colour, there shouldn't be any. Either black or silver, but whichever it is they must all be that same on both wheels. Anyone with coloured nipples deserves to have their nipples dyed the same colour. There is also a special place in hell for those responsible for alloy nipples.

I love coloured nipples! And not all alloy nipples are created the same. For a company that generally makes excellent products DT Swiss's alloy nipples are terrible. Also whatever alloy nipples that Hunt uses are dreadful too. I reckon the Hunt four seasons wheelset is so called because that how long the nipples will last (if you're lucky). I am just one wheel builder but I reckon I rebuild at least two Hunt wheels each month.
Sapim alloy double square nipples are excellent. I've been riding them for years without a single failure. We've seen them pull through old rims, but the nipple is still going strong.

 

[Retrorockit]

Silver rims and black spokes = Black Widow.

 

[rentedmule]

3 to 6 spokes, always black.

Y spins by Rented Mule, on Flickr