Originally Posted by cyccommute
Probably mild steel or zinc plated if they are scaled and corroded. Or have you been riding on salted roads?
I got the bike this past January (it's a 1999 model near as I can tell). It came from a dumpster in Boston, so it had some salty winters in its past.
Could the spoke nipples be zinc-plated too? What would the Zn be plated onto, if that were the case?