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In this video I’m going to explain how to polish bicycle spokes. The spokes on my bicycle looked so bad I actually thought all of them had rusted. However, since the rear cassette had rusted a film of dirt and rust had been applied to the spokes over the decades.
The dirt had settled into an extremely nasty coating and would not come off simply by trying to rub it off. But since the front wheel looked distinctly different I found out the spokes we’re indeed stainless steel. The bike’s brand is a Koga Miyata and I don’t believe they ever brought out a product without stainless steel spokes.
The very hard road would be to take the entire wheel apart, polish each part, and put it back together again. But since I don’t know how to build wheels and don’t have a truing stand that would be out of the question.
Before I started cleaning the hub I removed the rear freewheel (I end up doing both wheels). After that I tried to remove as much crud as was humanly possible, which was very little. So I decided to start sanding them. I never start with a low grit sandpaper, but they stuff was so nasty I had absolutely no choice.
And as always sanding simply takes up a lot of time. Some areas, especially around the hub and where spokes cross each other, are hard to reach. And my hands are too big to reach in between the spokes. It means you have no other choice than to enjoy the process and see yourself working towards another part of your project restored to its full glory.
You can’t just stick with an eighty grit sandpaper and leave it at that. You’ll clearly see scratch marks on the spokes if you do. Marks your machine polisher will not be able to remove. So, as with polishing aluminium cranks, I moved all the way up to an 800 grit wet sandpaper.
I only sanded the spokes. I didn’t do either the hub or the rims. A lot of metal parts are anodized to make them more resistant to wear. Polishing any part always involves removing this thin anodized layer. Your bicycle parts will look nicer, but are weaker in the process. And since rims are most likely to get into contact with dirt and water, removing the anodized layer is not a good idea.
After you have sanded the spokes it’s time to polish them. I needed to find the right position and strategy to polish all 36 of them. The wheel obviously is a large and clumsy object to hold while polishing the bicycle spokes.
I found that by resting the lower part of the wheel I had a clear hold on the wheel and could move the spokes from left to right. I also was able to polish part of the spokes’ rear by moving the polishing wheel in between the spokes. I had a firm grip on the wheel while holding it and resting my palm on the machine polisher.
Be careful to not accidentally rub the rims and remove part of the anodized aluminium.
Tools used:
HBM 150 mm Hobby Polijstmachine: https://www.hbm-machines.com/producten/polijsten/polijstmachines/hbm-150-mm-hobby-polijstmachine
I’ve also written about blog post with more information. If you want to read this article go to https://www.restoration.bike/bike-restoration/polish-bicycle-spokes/
Visit my website for more bike restoration tutorials: https://www.restoration.bike/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/restoration.bike/
Music is from the YouTube Audio Library
Song is “Song of Sadhana” from Jesse Gallagher
18 Comments
Thanks bro
If you want to learn how to build a 32, or 36 hole, 3-cross wheels, just like the ones you cleaned, give 'Brockley Bikes' a look.
It is how I learned to build wheels!
The editing is a bit loose, but the guy explains and demonstrates how to build good, strong, balanced, tried front and rear wheels.
It"s how I learned, and still go about building wheels from scratch!
It has saved me much money.
Useless idea
I did not see an easy step anywhere in the video. I've spent more time looking for "an easy way to clean" up some rims than it would have taken to sand them.
2 easy steps. Where???
Or buy new ones?
For your safety mate never use your bench grinder in the ground over a cloth mat! if the turning wheel catches the cloth then the machine will jump all over the place, use a bench table and secure the machine on it next time, stay safe, cheers.
thank you for this ..I have a CD200 that needs work
Try Red 3M Scotch Brite Scuff Pads. Makes it a one step project. There are Scotch Brite products to chuck in your drill. Green Scotch Brite Pads can be found in the kitchen department of stores but are too course for finish work. The Red Scotch Brite Pads are found at Lowes or Home Depot.
"… and that's it!" Nuthing to it. A+ for your perseverance and stamina! God bless you!!!
I had never built a wheel until a couple of weeks ago, even though I've been working on and building bikes for about 40 years. I watched a YouTube video called "How To Build Bicycle Wheels the Easy Way" by Jim Langley and it was very easy to follow. I also bought a cheap $30 truing stand off eBay and it isn't great, but it gets the job done. In any case, my incentive to learn to build wheels was: I had some cruddy spokes that looked like yours, and there was no way I was going to try to polish them in situ. For that matter, I didn't want to polish them at all; I just wanted to replace them with stainless steel spokes, which stay looking new forever. For $0.25 per spoke ($9 per wheel, assuming 36-spoke wheels), why go through the hassle of polishing plain steel spokes which can eventually end up looking like crap again anyway (especially since sanding/polishing removes the original protective zinc)?
try scotch bright pads.
Don't sand, it will take your anti rust coating, that leads to faster rusting.
After nearly 12 months doing this, have you seen whether your spokes are rusting again?
How do I get these brake marks off my rims completely. I used alcohol, water-soap with a rag. Definitely cleared up but the rims aren’t completely clean. I still have balck markings. I hear using acetone or some Brillo pads? What do you recommend that won’t cause any wear or harm the rims?
My brand new dremel 3000 broke already
a shoelace is all you need.
Zync coating of spokes removed during sanding