53 K Spokes Recommendations

[Mayday53]

I had one bad Nipple on the front rim...any thoughts on how or if it can be fixed?

Bad Nipple

Picture5.jpg (119.41 KiB) Viewed 13156 times

Damaged Nipple

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[Mayday53]

Did the rims come in black that year? Is Chrome preferred over Black? I will be putting stainless spokes to look like Cad as much as possible, read a tip to lightly media blast them to get them to look like cad...thoughts/experience?

[EKHKHK56]

Yes 19" was standard for front, rear. 18" front optional till 56. Those look fine except nipple hole in my opinion. Erik K

[EKHKHK56]

It is hard to beat a chrome rim with new SS spokes and black hubs. They look fantastic. There is a trend now with black rims on bikes copying the 30s and 40s race look...Erik K

[Mayday53]

Any ideas or experience fixing a rim nipple Erik?

[EKHKHK56]

Wow I wonder how that pulled through... didn't see that first time. I don't know about that. Is the metal bad? So I have a 3.50 ×19" Avon Speedmaster on my front. Works for me. Rims and other could have been black I would think since Chrome ones were part of the chrome "group". Styling is pretty much your choice, however you envision it, go for! I think you mentioned you had black bars, etc? Might want to compliment that? It's like the box of chocolates which one...

[EKHKHK56]

It would probably harder to fix than worth. It would have to be welded and than refinished I'm thinking...still wonder how that happened. ..might have to put a new section in.

[Mayday53]

It would probably harder to fix than worth. It would have to be welded and than refinished I'm thinking...still wonder how that happened. ..might have to put a new section in.

I will bring it to a reputable machine shop here to see what they can do...

[55panman]

pulled through nipple repair. Run a heli arc (TIG) bead with 309 stainless wire around the hole to pad weld it up then dress with burr grinder. Hardly ruins the chrome. Ron

[hennesse]

I would send a photo of the rim and the bad nipple hole to your chrome plater, and ask if they can fix the nipple hole.

Contrary to popular belief, there are hundreds of shops that do chrome plating. Most of them only do things like the racks in your kitchen oven - for the manufacturer - they do thousands at a time, and they're nice new steel that requires no preparation and minimum finishing.

There are few shops that do motorcycle and antique car parts. These kinds of parts are usually crappy to begin with, require a lot of preparation work, and a lot of finishing work. The actual plating part is the smallest part of the job - the prep and finish are individually-done manual labor. Good shops fix things as a matter of course.

Your rims that have rust and pitting, and have been bashed against curbs will come out looking like new - if you pay the price a good shop charges. It won't be cheap, but all that individual manual labor costs money.

After stripping the rust, old plating, etc. off, they often need to weld and grind cracks and larger imperfections. Then they copper plate the part. The copper will fill pits, and is easy to sand to a smooth finish. Lots of manual labor getting the part smooth, especially wheels. Then they nickel plate the part. Nickel sticks to copper good, and chrome sticks to nickel good. Then they do the chrome. Afterwards, there's a lot of manual labor buffing the part to a bright mirror finish.

So email your photos to someone like New England Chrome Plating, and ask if they can fix the spoke hole. Places like them have done a whole lot of motorcycle wheels over the years. If they say they can do it, it's probably a good choice. If they say no, there's probably a reason. And they'll give you an estimate on the work.

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BTW, nickel is a good in-between plating for many things. You can NOT cadmium plate stainless steel. But you can nickel plate stainless steel (using a "Wood's Nickel Strike"), and then cadmium plate the nickel surface.