Why all the black spokes?
 

Throughout the process of building a neo-retro road bike, the wheels have been my biggest hurdle. The frame.will be outfitted with Shimano R7000 so I'm trying to find a wheel set with black rims. The trouble is, I hate the modern look of black spokes. A black rim with silver spokes will help to hold to a bit of the vintage vibe.
Can any of you give recommendations of where to look? Velomine has a few rims, particularly the Archetype, that I like the look of but still with black spokes. Their only choice for silver spokes is on 36h 105 hubs but I'm not.sold.on those.hubs or the spoke count.

You have a wheel builder in town, https://peteswheels.com/, my son-in-law was happy with him.

Any wheel builder can build a wheel set for you using silver spokes.

Yep. Go a-la-carte. Find the rims, spokes, and hubs you like, then present them to your local wheel builder.
A quick search for "spoke length calculator" will be helpful if you know your hubs/rims.

I went to Wheelbuilder recently to get silver DT Revs. Easy, right? For the best wheels I've ever made on a super rim. Silver NOS Ambosia Futura. 282mm so nothing unusual. (And they are set up to cut spokes anyway.) DTs - black only. Sapim equivalents - black only. Ended up buying still lighter bladed Sapims priced like gold. Built up as beautiful wheels and a joy to do, but that's a lot of bucks to spend just to get the gauge al light as I want for best wheels ever in silver for a classic rim and titanium bike where black is the rubber, seat and handlebar tape.

Besides - black spokes look pretty mediocre a few year and miles later. Little scrapes look poor. Little scrapes on silver spokes? Good luck even finding them.

IMO, all bike parts are turning black or grey. Asphalt camouflage.
Carbon fiber grey frames, groupsets, rims, and black has even become the popular color of cycling jerseys.
It makes perfect sense in the time of texting drivers: they're the lions and we're their prey, so we need to be invisible to them against the grey/black roads we ride on. /s

https://mackcycle.com/cdn/shop/files...g?v=1693695310

Just be sure to never ride in the snow, because that's how they getcha.

Oh wow. I didn't even know about this guy. Thanks. I was thinking I'd just build the wheel myself, I've got 2 wheel builds under my belt already. I should have specified in my first post that I was looking for cheap and easy. Ergo the velomine consideration.

Its The Force, you can't escape it. Try coming over and joining all of us on the Dark Side. ;)?

https://imageio.forbes.com/specials-...safe&width=960

Is your R7000 groupset black? It seems odd that you would pick an all black groupset , black wheels, and then worry about black spokes

Wish I could've use The Force Hand to stop the texting guy's car from rear-ending me at a stoplight a few months ago.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...05/261/94f.gif

And to prove my original point, my motorcycle was a garish Stormtrooper-white with the brakelight employed. I don't know what I was thinking; practically asking to be hit by a texting driver.

I'd like to take a moment in favor of Velomine if you're looking at pre-built wheels. I've bought from them twice, including the wheels on my Raleigh that saw serious daily commuter duties for several years, zero issues. (Edit: To be clear, they're still on the bike and perfect, seeing regular use. I just don't have a daily commute anymore.)

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bcdbcfc9e5.jpg

These are SunCR18 rims on high-flange Origin8 hubs, straight gauge spokes. I don't recall what I paid for them, but next time I need a wheelset they'll be my first stop.

That must be why I only see those white bikes in the summer, when there is no snow.

Everyone knows you don't ride white bikes until after Easter.

Both DT Revolite and Sapim CX Ray are indicated models on the producers websites and easily found online at places like Performance Bike. Maybe Wheelbuilder just didn’t have them in stock.

Have to say I was initially put off by the appearance of black wheel sets (rims/spokes/hubs). However, dirt and stains don’t show as readily on black - and I don’t waste time cleaning spokes to make them shine any more. They get an occasional wipe but that’s it. I still have my vintage bikes with steel spokes, but they don’t get ridden that much - except the one on the trainer.

You could get silver spokes AND save money if you buy used.

I had a set of 32 spoke wheels built up last December. 105 hub, silver 14g spoke and black Dt Swiss rims with silver brake surface. Funny I cheaper out and went with the silver spokes. But the frame is silver with black accents. Black fork and black 105 group but with black Tiagra triple crank.

Sorry I cannot find the picture on my phone.

Edit. Added picture. Tubeless ready.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...72f0b5f3f.jpeg

If you can be assured the spokes are well short of their fatigue life at which they could fail.

I'm still riding wheels that I built in the 80's with DT spokes. Wadda figger their "fatigue life" is?

I would bet as you built your wheels and used the excellent DTs you likely used an appropriate spoke gauge and rim for your weight and kept them tensioned appropriately, etc. You will eventually wear your rim out and if you chose to go in a different direction your spokes would be a good buy used having next to no impact on fatigue life. Not always the case with used.

Used spokes are somewhere around 365th on my bike-related wishlist, below a GMC Denali.

And you can get your nipples in lots of colors

I have a number of bikes with black spokes and I kinda find it cool

You can't ride them after Labor Day either.