High Wheel “Ordinary” spokes

[Ed Minas]

Question of the day. Were the spokes on most ordinaries black or nickel plated? It is interesting to me to see so many high wheel restorations and reproductions with nickel plated spokes yet when I see barn finds they seem to be painted. Has anyone seen complete known originals with traces of nickel plating? I know we can’t make blanket statements that all were painted or that all were nickel plated but my hunch is more were painted than were nickel plated. Would like to hear your finding and your opinion.

Thanks in advance

 

[bikejunk]

Ed -you could order them either way -early bikes had less plating -I have had a few ordinaries with spokes painted up to the cross pattern then plated up to the hub - a nice period effect...

 

[Ed Minas]

Wow I like that concept a lot. And I Agree that the plating seems a little too much these days.

Ed -you could order them either way -early bikes had less plating -I have had a few ordinaries with spokes painted up to the cross pattern then plated up to the hub - a nice period effect...

 

[bikebozo]

Paul suppernaut makes his spokes out of stainless wire , . I do not know who else will make spokes and correct nipples , . Another thing I like to do is get some 00 washers and use one at the nipples end , it distributes the stress out to the rim , instead of putting all the pull on the little nipples hole . . Some people paint from the 1st tie back to the rim , good luck , Paul does excellent work , and has been doing it about 40 years I think ,. When he made some for me , I sent him a drill bit , to represent the size of the spoke , and a drill bit that is the hole size . Good luck with your project Walter branche ,

 

[pelletman]

I don't think anyone can say, I have seen lots of both. Many of the tangents were nickel and paint. I could guess that paint is cheaper, so probably more common but that is just a guess. Nickel spokes were NOT uncommon