Topic: Chrome wheels!!

[Jim Shea]

I have just spent an hour degreasing and cleaning my rear wheel and hub etc, assuming that under all the crud there would be a shiney finish(chrome like). I was disappointed to find a rather dull grey colour(battleship grey!), is this standard for a 1976 CB 750 F1 rear wheel?
Cheers,
Jim.

[Lumbee]

...I think they all cam from the factory with chrome.  Sounds like you may have an aluminum aftermarket rim...

[Bob Wessner]

I was disappointed to find a rather dull grey colour(battleship grey!),

I agree with RaDigga, you should find 'some' indication of chrome somewhere, though it could be less than perfect by now. After 22 years of storage, still found the chrome on rear to be sort of OK, though dull and stained in spots. The rear wheel and rim take a beating. They get peppered with road debris kicked up by the front wheel and God knows what from various drain tubes, etc. The early 750's had a chain oiler from the front sprocket which meant used engine/trans oil with all sorts of acids an whatever, and its next stop was, of course, the rear wheel. 

[Jim Shea]

The rim on the bike is nice shiny chrome, in good condition for 30 years old! It is the spokes that I meant, sorry, I should have specified that!!

[Lumbee]

hmm...spokes are a different story...not sure if they were chrome or not   

[eldar]

I think the spokes were a different metal, stainless steel maybe or aluminum. I do not think they were chromed.

[Jim Shea]

Come to think of it they do look like aluminium.

[Geeto67]

spokes would be either steel or stainless steel (aftermarket). Never heard of aluminum spokes (aluminum's propensity to stretch is greater than steel). IF there is no rust on the spoke it is probably stainless steel. The steel spokes came from the factory with a greay coatign on them that usually rusted over if you left the bike outside for any length of time.

the rim would be chrome, the inner hub should be raw cast aluminum. I have seen people do weird things with honda hubs (show chrome one side polished aluminum on the other for instance).

[6pkrunner]

The spokes are just cold steel and are very prone to rusting. Make an otherwise nice wheel look bad. Soft bristle wire brush and 200 up grit sandpaper and losts of elbow grease.

[Bob Wessner]

I believe the spokes were cad or zinc coated, thin coating for sure and didn't hold-up well.

[Jim Shea]

Thanks. It makes sense that they are steel(for strength), and they are grey, so original I bet? They did come up clean, but chrome would look the business!!

[Bob Wessner]

In case you are interested in some 'original' replacements 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4580631338&sspagename=ADME%3AB%3ASS%3AUS%3A1

[Jim Shea]

Ta....Expensive aren't they?? and then there is the fitting of them!!!!!!

[techy5025]

The spokes are steel with a thin plating.  Mine had a coating of (         ) ... you
fill in the blank... on top of the plating.  I thought it would be a great idea and
time saver to chuck them up in a drill and spin them while running sandpaper up
and down to "clean them off".  Worked great....so I relaced the wheel with them
and ......one month later they were totally rusted.  Amaziing how thin that
plating was...

Which is why I now have stainless ones from Buchanon.  NOT cheap, but they look
great....and as a side benefit I got to relace the wheel....again.

Jim

[Dennis]

I thought it would be a great idea and
time saver to chuck them up in a drill and spin them while running sandpaper up
and down to "clean them off". Worked great....so I relaced the wheel with them
and ......one month later they were totally rusted.

Jim

 

You probably don't want to use anything more aggressive than Scotchbrite or some other plastic "scrubbie" if you want to avoid the same results that Jim described above. It's difficult to get those plated spokes shiny. They weren't all that shiny when new!

[Jim Shea]

I just used a de greaser and then a bike polish, they are a lot better than before, I think i will leave them alone now!!

[bryanj]

Original spokes were cad plated with brass plated nipples. dave silver does spoke kits for £16 and new pattern steel rims for about £35 i think. Respoking is easy if you go about it right. First one will take 1-2 hours but it get quicker with practice--or so they tell me