Thanks for the input. I went over the wheels with Never Dull, lightly hit the remaining rust spots with 00 steel wool and finished with Meguiar’s polish for some protection. The process took a couple days and was a PITA but they look great. At least I should be able to keep up with them now.

 

Years ago, H-D spokes were cadmium plated, then maybe zinc plated. They resisted rust pretty well (if you resisted the temptation to polish them-which removed the soft plating), but they turned gray with age and looked bad. Along about '05. they switched to chrome plated spokes, which stay shiny, but will actually rust quicker, since chrome doesn't protect against rust like zinc or cadmium does.

 

I do all my own wheel/tire work, and when I've pulled tires off wheels with rusty spokes, they're always much worse inside the wheel; I've seen a couple where the spoke heads had enough missing material to wonder if they were even safe. Had some break before they would turn when I tried to tighten loose spokes, too. Stainless spokes are a good investment on a spoke wheel you want to keep for several years.

 

Which leads me to ask how hard is lacing and truing a wheel?

Beary

 

I`ve also seen some scary wheels when you remove the tire. Completely rusted up on the inside with spokes ready to fall out.

 

Lacing is just putting the spokes in, not a big deal as long as you know which holes to use for the right pattern, but they probably all wouldn't fit if you didn't get it right. Truing is where it gets fun, need to have the wheel on something like a static balancer - or you could probably put the wheel (minus tire, of course) on the bike temporarily, with the calipers removed so nothing touches it. Some kind of indicators beside and on top of the rim, so you can see any wobble as you spin it. Have to get the rim centered to the hub, too - truing takes a lot of patience, figure an afternoon, especially for a first time. Probably worth paying someone that knows how to do it, can be very frustrating. I'd bet a lot of guys have tried it and ended up taking it to a shop to finish it.

I've never had a hub and rim completely separated. I've replaced spokes one at a time, snugging each one up lightly as I put it in, then torquing them when all installed. No worries about getting the spoke pattern right, and very little adjustment needed if the rim was true to begin with. Or maybe I've just been lucky...

There are youtube videos on lacing/truing wheels, too; watch a couple or three and decide if you'd like to try it.

 

Read the tires article here with tips on treating the spoke to rim rust problem:

http://http://csharpharley.blogspot.com/

C#