Stainless steel or chrome spokes for MZ ETZ

[alexxx]

Hi Folks,

Any views on what is best and if you bought chromed spokes how well they keep.
Can anyone in the UK or EU regions tell me where to buy stainless steel spokes for the MZ ETZ.

Regards,

Alex

[davidandlindah]

Hi Alex - I had both wheels on my 1988 ETZ 250 rebuilt by a friend in Bristol a few years ago. He advised me to fit stainless spokes - no rust. They were expensive - a bit more than chromed steel. If you do a lot of rough riding, then the advice that I had was to go for the chrome, as the stainless spokes are not as tough and are more inclined to break. I was told that the way that the bend was put in the hub end (cold rolling) made the stainless spokes more brittle. Somebody out there, no doubt, could give you more info. As far as personal experience goes - they haven't rusted or discoloured in their years stored in my garage but they also haven't turned in anger since they were rebuilt. I think that the spokes came from a place in Birmingham, who also do wheel rebuilds - Central Wheels.

[alexxx]

Thanks David,

Just normal road use for me but I may just go with chrome spokes...if I can find any with quality.
I just bought some pattern spokes from David Silver spares for a Honda C90 I have and even the basic plating (cadmium?) is very poor, shame as I have two new chrome rims.

[Guesi]

German spoke producer WWS has a good reputation.
For a set of chrome spokes you pay about 59 Euro, for stainless steel about 57 Euro.

[alexxx]

Thanks Guesi,
Good info, I may plan another visit to Germany this summer so hopefully I can bring back some goodies.
I had just visited Berlin in Feb but didn't have an MZ then.
On another thought, do you have any idea where I could find out what colours the MZ factories were using for the ETZ range?
Regards,

Alex

[Guesi]

The GDR had a different colour system than the western countries.
They had no RAL System like Western Germany and other countries.
So you cannot have 100% the same colours nowadays.
There are some colours available from a wholesaler who reprodued these colours.
You find some of them here:
https://www.guesi-motorradteile.de/inde ... e8a3326/?_

Another good site is:
http://www.simantik.de/mz-farben.shtml

[alexxx]

Thank you

[breakwellmz]

I would be very surprised if the big adventure bikes from the likes of BMW, KTM etc used anything but stainless spokes, i would always go for stainless.(All decent bicycle spokes are stainless these days as well)