My new Deep V Rims are in and my nifty powercoated Miche track hubs want to in some way be connected to them. I'm really thinking black spokes or perhaps even gold spokes. My problem is I can't seem to find a place that'll sell them cheap enough for me to really bother.

Here's what I'm thinking. I might just go ahead and buy some stainless spokes for cheap and spray paint the mofrackys black. Or should I just go ahead and fork over the extra dough and buy em black. Andrew Muzi from Yellow Jersey says its a waste of time because the black coating wears off anyway and that it'd be like an extra 40 bucks for black spokes (meaning forty dollars more than silver). What do you guys think? Buy the cheap stainless spokes spray em and lace em. Or buy the black ones, and if I should buy em where should I buy em from?

buy the black ones if thats what you want.....the black may wear off down the line, but spray paint will come off in no time.....

spokes. why bother. use some yarn. a skein of black should do the trick.

I have had black spokes on a couple of bikes and haven't had any problems with the black coating wearing away. I bet you'd have to have a lot of miles and a lot years to make black spokes turn silver.

Also, an extra $40 for black spokes is insane. There's no reason they should cost that much more. Look around a bit for a better price. Go with black if you have black hubs. Sounds sweet.

www.icyclesusa.com tends to have the best deals on spokes - i've done a fair amount of shopping around. they've also always been a pleasure to deal with. they sell spokes individually because they cut them to order. i never had a reason to waste money buying a bag of 144 spokes, or even two bags of 50 which some places sell.

hey, dont buy black spokes, just spray paint them, on my trials bike i painted mine copper, all you have to do is paint them before you build and you are set, and the clearcoat them

Cool, this is perfect exactly what I needed, thanks.

As a side note is there anything wrong with buying the cheap-o stainless spokes, or should I invest a little more money into them?

bottom line: you get what you pay for...

Heh heh, yeah I know but are we talking I get what I pay for....my spokes are randomly going to explode once I hit the first bump on York St (they need to fill in those pot holes!), or I get what I pay for...I'm going to add a few grams to my wheels?

you may have lost me here broseph.
are you thinking since you are building this up you should go cheap in case you F up?

No, I'm thinking I should go cheap because I'm poor

I love my black spokes. Got them from IRO.

ditch vanity for function then
go with as solid a spoke (DTs are good enough to survive 5 years of chicago), and get the standard color. getting all fancy ain't worth it. Pay for durability, not color if your funds are limited. Or knock over a crackhouse.
Life is full of choices, or as I call them, "choipportunities."

try webcyclery.com

You're weird dude. I have to side with with cheap and solid on this one. Although black on black would be sweet, I wouldn't want to pay extra for black spokes. Especially if I was financially challenged. Oh wait...I am financially challenged, but that's only for another month or two, I hope.

Also, if they don't sell the spokes you want locally it would be a pain in the arse to replace one if you break it.

well, as for the DT vs. generic issue, since they cut all their own spokes, its not like the cheap ones are going to have crappy threads. so the only variable seems to be the quality of the metal.
more importantly, and I could be completely wrong about this, I know spokes break, but how often do they really break compared to hub flange or rim failure? to me, it would be a tossup between cheap black spokes and standard DT's providing the wheel was built properly. but i am by no means an expert, so someone who has built a lot of wheels should post!

one of my black dts blew up yesterday, although that may have been due to a crash