1975 R90/6 spokes question

[bandersnatch]

Hi,

The spokes on my R90/6 have a fair amount of rust on them. They appear to be chrome plated steel but I see both stainless and chromed spokes available.

I have heard that chromed spokes are now looked down upon due to hydrogen embrittlement from the chroming process and a lot of people are going to polished stainless for replacements. What's the consensus? A lot of worry over nothing, or is there something to the fears?

My preference is for originality, so I'll likely stick with chrome plated if that's what was on the bike when new. Can anyone verify that original /6 bikes came with chromed steel spokes?

Thanks,
Larry

 

[20774]

Larry -

From this thread, it appears that stainless were not original but were the replacement of choice:

https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?50300-Rusty-spoke-help

From this thread, seems like chrome was original:

https://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?93915-r75-rusty-spokes

 

[RPGR90s]

spokes

I've restored quite a few Airhead's with rusted spokes. The owner's always went with stainless which look fantastic for years and years.

The Originality Police might deduct points at your next Concours d' stuffed nose event, but my personal experience with my '74 R90s has been great.
Installed a set in 1990. About 100,000 miles since then and the wheels are true and straight as the day I installed them.

RPGR90s

 

[bandersnatch]

Great info, thanks all.

It appears that the chromed spokes aren't as available as I thought (plus they cost about 4x as much). You've convinced me that stainless is the way to go!

Much appreciated.
Larry