Nipples!

[Bloop2]

Great....now that I have your attention, does anyone know what the spoke nipples circa 1968 were plated with. Was it yellow zinc?

[yeadon_m]

When in 1968 I was staring at nipples, I didn't mind or notice the colour, so sorry, I can't help you with that one

Mike

[tz375]

Back in the sixties, Honda Cadmium plated spokes and used brass nipples.

Now Cad plating is hard to find because of its toxicity, so most spokes are zinc plated. If the nipples are steel based and yellow, it's passivated zinc.

If you get spokes plated they have to be baked to reduce hydrogen embrittlement.

[joolstacho]

Bloop, don't worry about the colour of them... just rub them lightly and see what happens.

[GT750Battleship]

Bloop, don't worry about the colour of them... just rub them lightly and see what happens.

That's great advice,used this method myself in the past...with great results
Cheers,
Roger

[Bloop2]

Back in the sixties, Honda Cadmium plated spokes and used brass nipples.

Now Cad plating is hard to find because of its toxicity, so most spokes are zinc plated. If the nipples are steel based and yellow, it's passivated zinc.

If you get spokes plated they have to be baked to reduce hydrogen embrittlement.

The spokes (68 T500) were Cad plated, have already had a front wheel set re plated locally and I'm about do to another two sets. I did have have them baked. T500 front wheel spokes are nowhere to be found and I don't want to use after market, so I'm re plating. The nipples are steel and have a slight yellowish tinge, I thought about re plating them since I have so many.

[tz375]

Steel nipples are usually yellow zinc. I have had them re-plated with bright zinc in the past and that works, but I suspect that spokes and nipples in the same plating will be a problem over time.

[ConnerVT]

Bloop, don't worry about the colour of them... just rub them lightly and see what happens.

This thread is useless without pictures.