Steve, the thing is there are many different types of stainless steel. It is a family of alloys with very diverse properties. Most people only come across the most well know 18/8 versions, beloved of cutlery makers. That is an austenitic steel with 18% chrome and 8% nickel with other elements that denote the type of 18/8 - these are designated by AISI numbers - type 316 being the best known, though the chrome is supposed to be 10-14, so a bit of an anomaly there. The next group is known as ferritic stainless and these steels have between 12 and 27% chromium, no nickel and no carbon. They are typically magnetic and this is the big difference from their austentic cousins, which are non-magnetic but more corrosion resistant. So if you have slightly stained stainless spokes they will be ferritic. From a random check in the garage Dunlop stainless rims are austenitic but I have 'stainless' spokes that are both magnetic and non magnetic. For the benefit of the minority UK members and those in the parts of the US and Canada subject to ice and hence salt on roads, austenitic (non-magnetic) stainless steels do not like a salt environment and can crack through a stress corrosion mechanism, that I won't elaborate on here, just to say it has caused many big bangs in process plants, like refineries.
Nigel Land
East Coast of England (about half way up)
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 07:31:23 -0400 From: cpotz@aol.com To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org Subject: [CR]Re: Classicrendezvous Digest, Vol 41, Issue 112 Message-ID: <8C851F3B6D8773F-534-1CD9@FWM-D20.sysops.aol.com> In-Reply-To: <MONKEYFOODdzmFB0uHe00001977@monkeyfood.nt.phred.org> References: <MONKEYFOODdzmFB0uHe00001977@monkeyfood.nt.phred.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Precedence: list Message: 2
not all 'stainless' is, my 1947? Raleigh Lenton Clubman retains it's origina l front wheel which has 'stainless' spokes only some have 'rusted' a bit,the y are all the same and have an R on each head ,and are all very slightly mag netic ,but ARE stainless..steve chambers chesterfield england