That’s quite disturbing. My bike is 6 months old and has done 7000km. So far no sign of this problem, but it almost looks like it was chrome plated and now the chrome is gone.
Very interested if any other owners have this problem.

 

Looks like chrome plating is coming off.
If it is unchromed stainless, steel wool would rub that right off.

 

Not seeing that with mine. 14 months and I am shocked at how good they still look given the off-roading. I don't wash mine with anything but soapy water and clean them as best I can.

 

Any of you guys experiencing discolouration of the spokes like this? It's not corrosion, but the spokes are taking on a black staining - it is not brake dust as I have had a good go at keeping them clean when I wash the bike. I thought there spokes are stainless steel ,so I am rather surprised at this (the bike is 1 year old and has covered 6K miles).

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Any of you guys experiencing discolouration of the spokes like this? It's not corrosion, but the spokes are taking on a black staining - it is not brake dust as I have had a good go at keeping them clean when I wash the bike. I thought there spokes are stainless steel ,so I am rather surprised at this (the bike is 1 year old and has covered 6K miles).

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I have the same problem after only 6000 km. See what my dealer has to say about it.

 

I believe the spokes are steel plated, just like the early Africa Twin. Any trace of road salt is likely to turn them black as happened to Honda who had to replace spokes, sometime 3 times
Honda changed to Stainless spokes

 

I'm at 21 months in....about 10K miles and my spokes are still looking like new. My bike has seen mostly off-road use. Car wash soap to clean the bike only.... ...and I don't clean the bike all that often since it's only going to get dirty again.

 

Have the same issue, have a feeling it might be related to UK roads being treated with salt in the winter. However it is impossible to remove everything following a ride out. In my opinion this is unaceptable on a £14k bike that should be designed to be used all year round.

Have started the process of trying to get Triumph to do something. But am not holding my breath

 

It is the salt that turns plated spokes black. I have had two Hondas recently both had plated spokes. The first I rode twice on salted roads and black spots appeared. The second I have ridden for three years but never when salt was on roads, spokes are unmarked.
Even on dry roads the salt dust coats the spokes and then as it is hygroscopic it absorbs water from the air and it corrodes. Of course 90% of the salting in the UK is not required. Where I live in northern England they salt for 7 months October to April. In 2021 it was May 8th .before the roads were clear of salt. A slight grass frost does not mean ice on roads.

 

I took it up with my dealer and was told that Triumph specifically do not cover the wheel spokes on the warranty. They obviously expect spoke corrosion when used on typical British Salted Winter roads!
Very disappointing on a bike which is otherwise of very good quality IMO.

 

Yes very bad of Triumph. Honda had to replace many wheels on the early Africa Twins until they finally changed to stainless spoke. No matter how you protect the spokes the fact they are spinning rapidly in a salt bath means thy corrode. Its a short riding season due to our crazy gritting policy.

 

Just got theis response ( Bollocks) from triumph.


Thank you for your enquiry.

The wheel spokes on your model are made from mild steel and are nickle zinc coated, and the coating is test 240 hours in a salt spray environment.

The nickle zinc coating is there to protect the material underneath and is a sacrificial finish.

The tarnishing shows that the coating is doing it's job, so they are fit for purpose.

Best regards
Pete
Triumph GB.

 

Wow, so they deliberately let the spokes become ugly as to protect the mild(?) steel?
This is not something I expected from Triumph. I wonder if they use the same on the new T1200. If so, it will be just another disappointment.

 

Yes basically saying we design our bikes to look Sh*t after a few years. Thought they would have sorted this after the rusty T800 spokes.

 

I heard today from my dealer, Blom Motoren, that Triumph Netherlands does not provide a warranty. I now have stainless steel spokes fitted at my expense. Haan Wheels in the Netherlands can supply these for about €80 per wheel. The dealer will carry out the work and will hopefully ask a reasonable price for this.

 

Thanks for the tip! Might be good to remember for when the spokes of the new 1200 are also of low quality. Still ridiculous that Triumph deals with the issue this way.

Btw, Blom motoren…..based on my experience, the worst Triumph dealer in The Netherlands…..

 

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. No bad experience for me so far. And I hope never to agree with you on that.

 

If you google Nickel / Zinc plating it says the process is very good for resisting corrosion. Clearly not the case on salted roads. My corroded spokes have always been worse on the leading edge suggesting the wheel spinning in salt laden air is very hostile. Sticky ACF50 on my spokes attracted the salt which then pulled water from the air to leave the spokes saturated when none ACFd parts of the bike were dry
I think the car world is ahead of the motorcycle world in terms of protection products. There are a number of products marketed for car wheel winter protection that claim to provide a durable coating. They may be better than ACF50 etc on wheels as they provide a harder coating that dries.

 

Yes, definitely a very poor choice by Triumph - I got the same comments from my dealer.
Triumph IMO have spoilt an excellent bike by penny-pinching in this way. I know they say that the spokes they use are stronger than stainless, but the fact that other manufacturers use stainless kind of makes a nonsense of this argument.

 

My wheels will be respoked with stainless steel spokes at Haan Wheels in the Netherlands. The only problem is that there are no stainless steel nipples available. So the original nipples will be reused. I heared that Triumph is not the only one with bad spokes. The spokes on the Yamaha Tenere 700 are really bad. Haan Wheels is replacing a lot of them under Yamaha warranty.

 

Strange, I would call a dealer and ask if they've seen this..

 

Yep did that. They said that's why Triumph do not cover the spokes on warranty!
In a warm dry climate the discolouration of the spokes probably won't be an issue, but in the UK where they cover the roads in salt each winter it is a real pain in the backside, but I am determined not to let this detract from what is otherwise an excellent bike

 

I have the wheels back with stainless steel spokes. They look great and i hope the problems are over. The original front wheel spokes are all discolored. The back wheel spokes are all fine.

 

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I have the wheels back with stainless steel spokes. They look great and i hope the problems are over. I have the original spokes in a plastic bag. The original front wheel spokes are all discolored. The back wheel spokes are all fine. I will post a picture asap.

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I have the wheels back with stainless steel spokes. They look great and i hope the problems are over. I have the original spokes in a plastic bag. The original front wheel spokes are all discolored. The back wheel spokes are all fine. I will post a picture asap.

They look great! I think I will investigate getting this done next winter.

 

Thats crazy on a high end Adven Bike, Triumph should makes all these from stainless...