black seem to be the trend at the moment, but is that necessarily a good thing? how do the two compare in terms of how long they last?

My experience over the years has been thas as black spokes age they tend to get more brittle for some reason and are prone to snapping at the hub. This has now happened on at least 3 sets of wheels with black spokes and wasnt as a result of crash damage. Reversely I’ve never had a stainless spoke snap.

go stainless, i had black on a prohpet and they looked shabby after a short time. tarnished,

Stainless.

stainless

Depends on what looks best on your bike.

I tried some wheels I had with SS spokes on my Orange Handjob and they looked poo, so i bought some new ones with Black SS spokes

Stainless

Been building with DT black spokes for years, had no more problems than with their equivalent silver ones. Had lots of problems with OE black spokes though, stick with a decent brand and you should be fine.

anyone else had problems with black spokes snapping?

stainless!

A nice bonus is that in the dark you get light glistening off them…..

stick with Sapim or Dt black and they are fine, others are shit.

Black! No problems with them – all of my bikes are black and silver spokes are not welcome. The LBS who I usually use for wheels does say what others here are saying, that stainless are more durable. I’ll take their word for it but there can’t be much in it.

he he. Anyone who thinks black are worse needs their head examined. They’re the same spokes sprayed black. Anyway, all my black spokes have been just as good as the non-black ones, and I break kit all the time.

so when you scratch a black spoke it’s silver underneath? that dosen’t sound too good……

Doesn’t the wheel guy at Stif refuse to use ‘black’ spokes because he reckons they’re ‘weaker’, for some reason? Can’t see it, meself………… 😕

My lbs won’t build wheels with black spokes for the same reason. I’ve had a set with black ones for almost 4 years and never broken a spoke. They’re looking a wee bit tatty, but that’s just being tarty!

so are they silver underneath when you scratch them on rocks etc?

Yes, if you scratch black spokes they will be silver underneath.

I don’t think anyone has ever shown how black spokes are any weaker, I understand it’s just anecdotal.

I know of a couple of wheel builders that wont build with black, which is interesting. I’m not sure if its based on reality or not, or what the cause would be – im not sure what coating they use. I’d use black if I could get them cheaply.

just goes to show that wheelbuilding is a dark art and wheelbuilders are witches!!

so i’m thinking stainless spokes look better for longer even if they are no stronger than black spokes…