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.

the "silver" spokes can either be Stainless steel, or Galvanized steel... the stainless spokes are preferred due to their resistance to rust, and a bit of extra "strength" from the elasticity of most SS alloys compared to galvanized steel.
the "black" spokes are usually painted Galvanized spokes. a couple brands offer painted SS spokes.
Galvanizing lends some brittleness to the base metal. Zinc is Brittle.
the difference in strength is not enough to be a real concern.

i've built up a couple sets of wheels using half black, half shiny spokes... SS in the rear wheel's "pull" direction, black in the other.
didn't like the look, personally.
i use black spokes with brass/chrome nips, and black rims... that looks good, adds some bling to the wheels.
all silver spokes and nips with black hub and rims too.
silver hub, black spokes, chrome nips, black or silver rims...

i have not yet tried a "one side black, one side silver" build... maybe next time?

I'd almost certainly be using Sapim Race spokes. Available in black and silver. I'd imagine that being the same spoke in different colors, they are the same.

If I'm thinking correctly, it'd be 8 black and 8 silver for the drive side and 8 black and 8 silver for the NDS. Would need to measure. I never get lucky enough to get DS and NDS spokes of the same length. Definitely brass nips on these.

Trying to decide if I should build it up now, or wreck the current wheel worse? Chances are, even with a flat spot and a straightened out dent, they might hold up forever.

Could go nautical instead. Red to port and green to starboard! <grin> Though I guess you'd have to paint them.

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

Red and Green, need to be cut and rolled.

"Colorful" bikes sell faster... the two bikes in my sales racks that get the most attention are the brightest ones, currently... a yellow/black giant warp with red accents (cable housings, and in the logos, etc) and a matte white/yellow/orange/matte white fade paint job on a Spesh.Hardrock Comp.
I had two identical Raleigh 24" wheeled MTBs in the racks, the black one is still here, the red one sold quickly, for $20 more than i'm asking on the black one....
BRIGHT Green bikes sell fast, forest green ones can languish for years. One Bright Matte Green Trek Portland sold before i'd completed the tune up!... i almost kept it for myself, but it was one size too big... sigh.

If you just use the same brand of spokes on both sides you won't have the problems that maddog34 alluded too. I wouldn't use galvanized anything on a bike for any reason just use good quality spokes from DT Swiss or Sapim and you will be fine. I actually had never seen galvanized spokes for sale through any of my distributors and never see them listed in specs but apparently wally-mart sells them.

Used to be that chromed spokes and early stainless spokes were more fragile than galvanised, but then they developed better stainless alloys and that problem went away (unless you're a diehard vintage person I guess). Possibly the black painted spokes on cheap bikes led to a low opinion of black spokes generally, but better quality black spokes are usually treated with an electro-deposition process that is more durable than a simple coating, and doesn't affect the strength. A spoke arrangement I like is to put a coloured spoke on both sides of the valve hole.

I did exactly what you're inquiring about. Alternated black & silver for my mountain tandem front wheel:


If you mix spoke colors, just be sure to match gauge. I even went the extra step and alternated alloy black & silver nipples. (What is this, some Raiders-themed bike???)

I did it because I already had half the spokes I needed in one color. So 16 more of the other was all I needed.

The 36 butted spoke 3X wheel with alloy nipples has performed fine on the mountain tandem for 15 years.

Actually, you didn't.

Look at the picture of the cookies.

I mixed a Sapim silver and black on a recent build. The black on stainless spokes is usually black oxide (gun blue), but it could be PVD. Regardless, neither affects spoke strength.

I alternated, which means that all the drive side are silver and NDS are black. And then I paired the silver spokes with black nipples and black with silver nipples.

Looking at Sapim Strong now. Same price. 7g per spoke vs 5.85 on the race. Approximately 40g on the wheel. Not concerned about that for this application.

Now I've always heard that double butted spokes stretch a little in the middle. This allows some level of shock absorption and makes the wheel last longer than straight gauge. Makes sense especially when you read the article you link about where a spoke fails.

The Strong are still double butted, but 13/14/13 instead of the more common 14/15/14.

I suppose you could make the argument that they'd ride harsher. It might not be felt. I wonder though, when we consider the bike, a hardtail that I do stupid things on, would that lack of flex transfer directly into the J bends? Could this actually compromise the wheel, since it would probably be a little bit more rigid?

Maybe it doesn't matter. My original wheel, is a Canfield Special Blend, which I believe is a Spank rim made exclusively for them - I can't find an identical hoop on their website. The only reason I damaged it was dropping off something with sharp rocks and not quite enough air in the tire. I've began running a cush core on all my back wheels since.

Funny thing about modern MTB wheels. They are sooo strong. I remember in the 90's wrecking wheels frequently. They were always out of true. No matter how we built them, they just couldn't quite hold up. Fast forward to now, the things we're doing on mtb's is so much more than it used to be. Hits are hard and frequent. And I can't remember the last time I trued a wheel. I think I checked once and it was too close to even bother. It's pretty impressive how much better they are

Instantly thought of this. The whole song is great, but you can skip to 1:35 . . .

Now I'm excited.

I've been riding the slightly damaged wheel for a while now because it was pretty good.

A few days ago I got ahold of a brand new, in the plastic, WTB Kom i30, for less than the price of lunch at a food truck. Which is a lot like the current hoop except stronger due to some extra cross sections inside.

Instead of tearing down the old wheel, which as I mentioned is still pretty ok, I got a little bling. Ordered an I9 hydra in gold. It'll match my titanium bolts on the bike and pedals. Absurd.

Half and half spokes are on the way.

Only compromise was they only had brass 12mm in black and I didn't want 14 or 16mm. I may check out the local shops for 16 brass nips. I need some tubes for my commuter anyway.

This wheel is gonna be cool.

FWIW, I'm usually slow, I ride gravity on a hardtail, I'm gray and bald, and I'm coming off an injury. I didn't want a carbon rim.

Why limit yourself to black and silver. With a hobby powder coating system ya can do some really wild and crazy stuff.

Not for this build but you've got my attention.

I'd imagine that powdercoat stays on better for black vs silver.

Got any pics or links to your hobby sized powder coating setup?

I shot this video showing my process about 10 years ago.

You don’t have to DIY it. ProWheelBuilder offers bazillions of colored spokes.

Colored spokes on ProWheelBuilder

I’ve been contemplating a set of wheel with orange and black spokes to go with my orange frame. And now that I’ve mentioned it I guess I need to go through with it.

do you know the spoke hole size of that new hub, by chance?
the Sapim Strongs need a 2.4mm or larger hole... really should be 2.5mm, i'd think... the Strongs are only recommended by Sapim for Tandems, Cargo, E-bikes, and Heavy Touring Bikes....
their black spokes are SS, with either an oxide coating, or what sounds like a light powder coat, maybe.

the crazy hotshoe Downhillers go with the CX-Rays for strength with some give when needed.... as mentioned on MTBR....

The Sapim Strongs are 2.3/2.0 while the DT Alpine III are 2.3/1.8/2.0mm. I’ve not used the Sapims (nor Wheelsmith’s version) but Pillar offers a similar spoke. Their graph shows that it is actually a bit stronger than the Alpine III (check the link in my post above for comparison).



I’ve had only one hub that had an issue with the Alpine III spokes. Most spoke holes in the hubs are drilled to 2.6mm so that the threads of the spoke can pass through. Spokes aren’t cut on but are rolled on which increases the diameter.

Finally, I’ve always said that pinch flats are a symptom not a problem. A pinch flat says that you are running too little pressure and are risking bending the rim. Running tubeless really doesn’t let you run much lower pressure because you can still bottom out the tire and bend a rim. You end up with a several hundred dollar fix to a $0.50 problem.

They're both split down the middle, just in different directions.

When I had this idea I was thinking black on one side and silver on the other - but someone in here somewhere suggested one color for pulling spokes and the other for pushing spokes... made for a subtle look that says "I built these myself" without being dorky looking.