Originally Posted by
rosefarts
I am soon going to be rebuilding a mountain bike wheel of mine. I thought, just for fun, of mixing the colors of spokes. Half black and half silver. For even more fun, not in a staggered pattern but in a half and half pattern. I'm comfortable keeping track of the different colors and lengths while lacing them up. Like these cookies.
I've heard rumors that silver is stronger? I've never broken a black spoke, I can't actually think of any spoke I've broken without a crash. Seems silly but could be true-ish.
This wheel will receive substantial abuse, I don't want to set myself up for ongoing maintenance issues.
I truly hope this is the dumbest question posted to the forum today.
Go ahead. Shouldn’t be a problem. The rumors about silver spokes being stronger than black ones is just that - a rumor. DT spokes, for example, are stainless whether they are black or silver. The black ones have been plated. Theoretically, the plating process could change the metal because of the chemicals in the plating bath but that’s a stretch and quite minor even if it happened. Buy spokes from a reputable company like DT or Sapim, however. If you buy something off of AliExpress, well, buyer beware.
As to the spokes you should use…especially if you are going to abuse them…look to DT Alpine or Sapim Strong. You can read why
here. The TL;DR version is that the thicker 2.3mm head provides significantly more strength than a spoke with a 2.0mm head.
This post gives actual data on the strength of that thicker head.
Bicycles don’t need to be dull and boring. Have fun with how you do things. For example, I have 4 different spoke nipples colors on one of my wheels
