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There was someone on a MTB forum that did small batch annodizing for reasonable money, I can look up his details. Andizing only works on none ferrous stuff IIRC so aluminium and titanium are fair game but steel is not (so no stainless spokes) there are other plating methods for making stainless go black but the really good ones use lead so the ROHS rulings make them VERY expensive.

Find an electroplaters in Yell.com and call them, see what they can advise, where I get my fixings their local electroplaters charge £25/batch to do stuff in Nickle a passive black, but that is
a rate for a LOT of regular work.

I went for Black ACI double butted in the end.

the thickness of powder coat is minimal at low voltage, not enough to cause problems IMHO. high voltage coating would be thick enough to, we did a bike frame of mine and got about .5mm thickness of powder, I also did some bolts at low voltage and the powder on the threads caused no issues.

the heat is about 200degC, steel and aluminium are fine.

steerer too short for me :(

if you put two free wheels on a double fixed hub, both the conventional way round to work on the right hand side when you flip the wheel, your left hand side hub will now run backwards as you have flipped it over. so if you put a chain on both sides, when pedaling forwards the right hand side freewheel will engage and the left hand freewheel will clickety clickety free wheel (causing a bit of drag) if you pedal backwards or try and coast your right hand freewheel will not freewheel but the left hand one will now engage and give you drive in the reverse direction. no reason why you couldn't have different ratios on both sides but chain tension could be fun (although not that important because being freewheels you can use a chain tensioner on either side).

this would allow you to have a high forward gear and low reverse gear making for easy skidding/braking, you will also have a lot more weight and frictional losses to deal with.

IMHO it will work, but not very efficiently, and whatever you do while you are moving you have a bloody freewheel clicking away which would drive me insane!!!!

I can thoroughly recommend Mavic openpros if you want to upgrade the wheels, I have 32h front 36h rear on miche hubs and they get the pie munchers seal of approval. mine are standing up to the abuse no problem (and the roads are not smooth round here), incidentally 21ish down to 19ish stone since september commuting to work fixed, and feeling MUCH better for it.

I'm looking at using ACI stainless double butted spokes from cyclebasket, my wallet isn't quite DT sized this month.

brake bridge?

Oooh interested in the orange one but I'd have to measure up my head tube tonight before I could commit are they 1" or 1 1/8" steerer?

Are your gold nipples alloy? Lots of lube and a careful hand needed with the spoke wrench to prevent seizing and rounding off the nipples.

Yep alloy, I have built rims with plain alloy nipples before, plenty of linseed oil on the spoke threads and nipples, and a PROPER fitting spoke key is a must, I use one of these which I have had no problems with:
http://sports.ciao.co.uk/Buddy_Spokey_Red_Euro_US_Spoke_Key__6837994

in the grand scheme of things .. it's not really that important.

just make up your mind and HTFU.

Nope, not really important at all, but things like this pass the time at work :p

If anodizing weakened the spokes, folk like DT Swiss whose business and reputation lives and dies on their spokes (and that reputation is good) would either not anodize their spokes black or find an alternative method for blacking up their spokes.

agreed, I cannot imagine it is an issue, even if it does weaken them they must still be plenty strong enough

Yes, black spokes are around 3% faster than silver spokes.

so if I go with black leading and silver trailing I should be 3% faster in the forward direction, bit like Sheldon's 'power wheels' maybe I should go black trailing on the rear so I can skid 3% harder???

What about powder coating spokes?
Thought about that, I wa tempted to do a set white and have black hubs and rims, black nipples and white spokes, PITA preparing them though, I would meed a conductive stand (bit of steel box section) with 72 holes drilled in it and tapped to M2 to thread the spokes into, to earth them for the powder coating to stick and prevent the threads getting covered. At some point I will do powdercoated spokes but I'll go for a much sillier colour.

Heard in Western Supermare once from a guy to his girl...

read in bristolian accent

"I luvs you. I fucks you. I buys you chips and you still does my head in!"

somehow I automatically read that in a welsh accent, and its brightened my day up a treat.

I've heard the anodizing can weaken spokes too (but I've never broken a spoke on my own wheel builds) I've also heard the finish it leaves can cause rubbing spokes to creak more than plain unfinished stainless. I honestly cannot see either of these issues really being an issue.

I think I'm leaning towards black, or maybe 3 leading in silver and 3 trailing in black?

I'm about to build up a pair of the skinny Rigida SX100 rims (all black) onto formula hubs also in black with gold nipples (to match the rigida logos). I'm undecided as to weather to use black spokes or plain shiney stainless ones. Most if not all the bike will be black also.

what would you go for black or silver spokes (probably use ACI ones from cyclebasket to keep costs down)??

its statistics, you can make them say whatever you want, that is why politicians use them all the time...

and another feature that cocoons car drivers even more is the last thing they need, far too many of them are oblivious to what is going one outside their little tin box!!!

I have a pair of nitto B-123 bars, steel, 40cm wide (too narrow for me) but a little scratched and dented, I planned on fitting them with full length leather bar covers so didn't bother me.

if your interested I can do pics but they would need to be posted as I'm in Guildford.

I have one of the Montane featherlite jackets and find it pretty good, I carry my own insulation so only require something to keep me dry and cool.

I actually quite like the look of this bike...there's a lot of potential with it!

How would it do w/a lttl on the taller end of 5'7"? If I shove 700c tyres on there maybe that could help w/height. You may find a definite bid on this if the price stays within my means (as I think I'm going to buy off the peg whilst looking for a project bike), it's awesome, thanks for sharing!

I think you would be fine, the seat tube is a very slack angle so as you push the seat up it moves back quite considerably giving you more space, you just end up sat a little more over the back end. I think with 26" and balloon tyres or 700c hoops you would be absolutely fine. look at the link here and read the blurb on the 'flatfoot' design.

http://www.electrabike.com/townie/

My intention was to go for a matt black frame and pinstripe it in blue and red, 26/24" wheel build with single coaster or 3 speed hub and dyno fireball tyres.

A friend of mine has one of those without the hummer logo, suprisingly nice for a folding bike IMHO. I thought it would make a nice fix with a pair of rigid forks.

My Mrs is 5'4" and she could sit on the seat with feet flat on the floor (26" rims with 1.75tyres, if you need it lower I'd build it with a 24" rear wheel and put a nice fat boot on it, 2.5 should fit easy, you may even get a 24X3.0 dyno fireball at a squeeze). the chain guard comes off with 2 bolts, the rear brake cable routes through the frame top tube and from memory due to the forward position of the bottom bracket there are minor toe overlap issues unless you pedal on tip toes

No idea if this is any use to you:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320251214435

frame I'm selling on ebay, would build up fixed no problem, although a step through I guess it may not be exactly what your after style wise.

Mine sits in the end of the lab about 20' from my office.

I've not got on with clips and straps, probably partly due to size 13 feet they just don't seem secure, I'm using SPDs now, but would like to wear my regular shoes for short trips commuting. how do power-grips compare with clips and straps, and could they be the answer to riding in clown size shoes?

Ok, I'm looking for bigger, 46 c-t-c preferably.

how many holes do you need in your hub? I have a 32h
miche high flange track hub I'm about to ebay.

what width are the noodles?