spoked wheel refurb

Anyone recommend a cost effective method of refurbishing the spoked wheels? Was thinking powder coat or paint a nice gloss black. Has anyone done this or experienced problems?

I have tried to restore mine by spraying them. All I did was to clean them up using a small rotary tool with a wire brush installed and then spray them silver. They are no great improvement over newer spokes but are an improvement on what they were slowly becoming.

Might try the rotary tool route. Really trying to visualise what it would look like with black spokes and chrome rims.

pritty good I'd say  

Hello Daz,
I like the look of blacked out spoked wheels,,, we are looking for a virago for Karen, I want her to buy a dog of a bike and let me build a custom for her,, she wants a shiny one,, I keep trying to stear her towards something like this:-

I agree John, blacked out spokes can look very fitting. I think buying a dog of Virago for her with your knowledge would be a good thing to do. Great for you to customise and great for her to get a bike that is a one off.

Hi Daz, powder coating them gloss or satin black is an excellent look, cleaning each spoke is a real pain and you will always get rust stains creeping back through around the spoke nipples, if you go the powder coat route ask the firm doing it to put an extra layer on, alternatively why not  take a photo first, get some stainless spokes and nipples get the rims powder coated, re-lace them yourself and if you don,t feel confident truing them yourself, take the wheel to a wheel builder for the final step and you will have cut the cost of him doing the complete rebuild, John why not see if  Karen is up to  having what type of style bike she wants put on the forum for a vote and then see if she would go for it, Regards Doc Cox

Hello Nigel,
Recent bikes Karen has owned are NSR 250,,, GPZ 500,,, then she got a 600 bandit because she wanted something more substantial and comfortable to ride to the south of France with me But unfortunately part of her life as a Master Horse woman tending to and teaching horse riding has caught up with her and played havoc with her knee joints ( Karen is a Chef the rest of the time on her feet all day)  so much so she is to have both knee joints replaced by the end of the year, Because of the knee problem Karen was finding manovering the Bandit whilst parking e.t.c or in the garage to be a problem so the Bandit was sold last week, then after discussion we came to the conclusion that a light weight cruiser carrying its weight low down would tick all the boxes even though she was dead set against having an "old mans bike",, we sort of lined up A Honda VT 600 shadow, Kawasaki EN 500,,, and the Yamaha 535 Virago.
Not many half decent EN 500`S about and they weigh 187 kilograms dry weight,, Shadow 600 197 Kilograms dry weight,, and then the 535Virago at 182 Kilograms which we sort of settled on and I like them,, have worked on them and want to build a one off but she says "NO" " I want a shiny one". Karen is only 5 foot 4 inches tall Nigel, and she had the Bandit seat re-shaped and lowered with a GEL pack added and I lowered the suspension 40mm,, so I think a Virago it is going to be plus Karen has ridden one and quite liked it. Failing that I use my M800 all the time now and if I don't sell my VZ 800 Marauder soon Karen my well give it a go but it weighs 207 Kg dry. As a matter of interest and discussion mate I wonder if you have used the following site, I`ve found it invaluable over the last few year helping people decide what type/model of bike is suitable for them. It was beneficial to Karen to see the riding position differences between the Bandit and Virago e.t.c Just click and add a bike or two and see the comparison.
 
http://cycle-ergo.com/
 
Dave mate, I showed Karen you comments ( and yours Nigel) in the hope of letting me loose with a project but the lady say "NO" so I sulked in the corner then she said " build your own project " so I think I now have something to do this winter and I`ll paint the bloody wheels black so I will ha ha ha.
P.S sorry if this is going off topic, feel free to move it admin.t