i am thinking about getting my spokes on my front wheel powder coated black. so i am wondering how hard it is to remove them? and what all has to be done to get them off? any tricks?

 

Mine had rusty thimbles and took some work to remove them. Hindsight I would have soaked them in penetrating oil for a day or two. If there is no rust you should be ok.

 

If you never have laced a wheel you might want to consider having someone who has do it! It would appear to be simple enough, but, take a good long look at the wheel first! There are inner and outer spokes that have to be put back in EXACTLY as taken off. Inners control up/down wheel movement and outers control side to side movement. Not to mention that the wheel needs to be centered from up to down and from right to left when reassembled. All spokes should be "equally" tightened and sing a similar tune when tapped. It is a learned skill!
That being said, there's no better feeling than doing something yourself!

 

hey bud we can help you start to finish, can remove rubber, unlace, coat, realace and true the wheel, reinstall bearings, install and balance (with dyna beads) the rubber and ship them back. just sent out two sets last week.
typically if you watn to leave the spoke chrome i would say to cut the old ones out and lace in polished stainless the diff is amazing.

if you are looking to do the whole wheel black. you can also ship them to us, i will true the wheel in and then we can coat the whole wheel. this is not how i recomend coating spoke wheels by any means however it does cost less and allows us to help our customers where we can. the major down fall of this is you are not able to true the wheel and if you bend or break a spoke you have to cut it out and recoat the wheel... but think about it, how often does that happen, the powder on the whole wheel will assist in keeping the nipples tight and the wheel true. kind of like a sealed rim would
if you have any questions please just let me know

 

on my bike (03 night train) all the spokes are the same, i looked into it today. so i have to remove the tire to remove the spokes? i talked with a local motorcycle shop today and they said they would put it all back together for and true and balance it for $30