New Bike Spoke Rust - Was I expecting too much?

[guerney]

Who uses zinc plated spokes? Sounds cheap.

Not a serious suggestion but... IIRC after removing the black paint using acetone, the OP could test for zinc by dipping the spoke into a solution of aluminum nitrate. There will be no aluminium deposited onto zinc visible.

 

[thelarkbox]

Thanks for the feedback and information on this. I would do this myself but I'm currently still disabled due to my condition (that my bike is definitely helping me improve overall) so it would be quite a lot of work to redo the wheels. I could try to get a friend or partner to learn to do it but since the bike is so new and not heavily used, I'd like to see what wisper are going to do first.

Considering the age of the bike (few months old) and the positive noises already made by @Wisper Bikes 'Wide Grin', 'Thumbs Up!' n digits crossed.

 

[CCebiker]

Well no reply from Wisper yet which is strange. I emailed them back 4 days ago with my original receipt, then I emailed two nights ago asking for an update on a solution but no reply yet.

 

[CCebiker]

I think I know what causes it, and if I'm right, there is nothing you can do other than clean it off. It's probably something to do with the three different metals in that area that effectively become a battery whenever the wheel gets wet. I think your best bet would be to contact Wisper about it. They're normally pretty helpful.

Although aluminium rims, brass nipples and zinc plated spokes are corrosion resistant, when you connect either aluminium or zinc to the brass (copper in it) with dirty water from the road, you get electrolysis, which causes rapid corrosion. Effectively, you've made a battery. You can test if that's the problem by making the wheel wet with rain-water, then measuring the voltage between the rim and the nipple, and the spoke and the nipple. Any measurable voltage shows that's what's going on. Salt water is even worse.

I think I remember somebody else with the same problem fairly recently. Maybe whoever built the wheels used the wrong type of nipples or spokes. I'm going to guess that you have zinc plated spokes.

So today I got a multimeter and tested between the rim, nipples and spoke. Rim-nipple was steady 0.1 and spoke to nipple was an on off 0.1. This was cleaned and dried first.

Then I did it with everything wet from rainwater. The rim-nipple reading was 15.8 upwards, and the nipple-spoke reading was around 2.5.

From what I gather this is significant enough to show some galvanic reaction, yes? The interesting thing is that when I measured my son's cheap Halfords bike, it had similar readings but less visible corrosion despite being used all winter on our salted roads, so I may be wrong but I feel like this is an issue of the galvanic reaction and materials with less resistance to corrosion or something like that.

Wisper have said something about sending replacement wheels but I've asked for more clarification on what the cause is as I don't want it just happening again. My interactions with customer service have been odd this time. When I asked for a follow up I was asked "remind me of the problem please" and to send photos, despite having done so in my first email to them.

Anyway, if anyone has some insight into these results that would be super helpful. I want to make sure I get a proper long term solution.

 

[saneagle]

So today I got a multimeter and tested between the rim, nipples and spoke. Rim-nipple was steady 0.1 and spoke to nipple was an on off 0.1. This was cleaned and dried first.

Then I did it with everything wet from rainwater. The rim-nipple reading was 15.8 upwards, and the nipple-spoke reading was around 2.5.

From what I gather this is significant enough to show some galvanic reaction, yes? The interesting thing is that when I measured my son's cheap Halfords bike, it had similar readings but less visible corrosion despite being used all winter on our salted roads, so I may be wrong but I feel like this is an issue of the galvanic reaction and materials with less resistance to corrosion or something like that.

Wisper have said something about sending replacement wheels but I've asked for more clarification on what the cause is as I don't want it just happening again. My interactions with customer service have been odd this time. When I asked for a follow up I was asked "remind me of the problem please" and to send photos, despite having done so in my first email to them.

Anyway, if anyone has some insight into these results that would be super helpful. I want to make sure I get a proper long term solution.

My latest thinking is that brass nipples and aluminium rims would be a problem, except that the nipples are nickel or chrome plated to separate the two metals, and those things are more or less standard on all bikes. I'm wondering whether somebody had the idea to "improve the quality" by adding washers to the nipples, possibly made of brass or a similar metal. There's clearly something unusual going on, but without having a wheel to inspect, I can only guess.

 

[CCebiker]

Hey everyone, sorry to resurrect a dead post but I just wanted to update you all. I was asked to send my bike wheels back to Wisper and received what looked like new wheels back. I didn't receive any email explaining the replacement, they just appeared one day. I had to rebuild my health over the winter before I could get back out on my bike, but they look great now. I will need to see how they do when there's some salt on the roads next winter (I still rinse them/wipe them down) but hopefully it's been resolved.

I emailed them to ask for more information -

"Sorry for not informing you at the time. I can’t remember exactly, but I think we rebuilt the wheel with new spokes and spoke nipples. The rim and motor/hub will be the original."

Anyway, just wanted to make sure I updated this thread. I'm pleased with the outcome and still love my bike. My partner has actually just bought one from Wisper now too, so I would still recommend them overall.

 

[AndyBike]

+1 for stainless spokes and brass nipples.

Most of my wheels are custom built, so are better kit, but I can see why some manufacturers choose cheaper products like mild steel and zinc coated spokes, because it is cheaper overall keeping their costs low.
But they're a false economy. They seize up and make re-truing impossible and add to ruining the user experience, which puts people off cycling.

 

[Nealh]

I always build with 14g Sapim Stong SS spokes .