The spokes on my bike's wheel are dulled, and I now have, thanks to Santa, some of the H-D soft-strips, to wrap and polish the spokes. To date, I used old face-clothes and Mothers Chrome/Wire Cleaner, but after a more careful reading of that label caution, it says not to use on cadmium plated spokes. So what is the plating on H-D spokes, and what brightens them well? Thanks.

 

I believe that the HD spokes are polished stainless steel. I think any good metal polish should work.

 

The spokes in '04 and back (I believe I got the vintage back right) bikes are cadmium plated. It is easy to spot them. They turn battleship gray in about 6 months. If you try to polish them, you will knock off the cadmium and they will rust. In '05 or so, the MoCo started using chromed spokes. They have never used polished stainless....They are too cheap.

 

I always polish with never-dull. It leaves the oily residue, which inhibits rust! So, I never worry about that. Not polishing the bike is NOT an option for this fella.

Joe

 

-- exactly what I have, battleship gray. I'll try something mild on them, like S-100 Wheel Cleaner or the H-D one, and see what happens. Since the bike is in the shop now, I'll check with them first for their suggestions. My dealer is excellent.

 

try using mothers liguid aluiminum cleaner.works good and doesn,t abrase much.i use it on my aluiminum wheels.also ligui tech has some good products

 

Just repeating what my dealer told me, they could be wrong, its happened before. [:@] I had bought chrome spokes (aftermarket from my dealer)for the front of my 04 dyna, because I didn't like the way the factory spokes looked, they were never very shiny like chrome should be. I never did get them on, seemed like a big job. Anyways, the fronts never turned grey, they stayed the same. the rears however, went straight to dull grey within a couple of months. Never could get those cleaned up...[:@] But my fronts never changed, just stayed the same dull look. I would suggest that you change out the spokes to chrome, and then just maintain them

 

well that sucks LOL , I guess I'll mainly worry about the rims on my 98 arghhhhhhhhh. hopefully will be able to afford to swap out the wheels in a few years anyway

 

I'd skip on the chrome. They are usually a loosing battle to keep from rusting. The rust usually starts at the nipple and worksit's way out. I'd go for polished stainless. Landmark diamonds are my favorite. They look great at night when rolling and the light hits them.