Same here, pants finish, I too thought it was oil at first, must have a look at the replacement set, bound to be going same way.

 

Having just done about an hours research I am suspecting that this is ferrous corrosion caused by iron particles from the brake pads. Unless someone tells me that the oem pads are iron free (which is possible apparently)
If this is the explanation then we need to use a ferrous fallout decontaminant. This is not a wheel cleaner and has to be used with care as it will damage any steel bolts nuts and sprockets that it comes into contact with. I’m not sure how it will affect the new stainless steel spokes
I’m going to buy some and see if it has any effect on the black pitting but I suspect once that’s happened it’s too late
Mike

 

I bought some expensive Meguars wheel cleaner designed to remove iron particles in case that's what's causing it. It didn;t touch them - the damage is done. Here's a pic and you can see why me and Henerey thought they were oil splatters. But blow up the pic and you can see it's black corrosion of the anodised alloy. You can also see that it's mainly on one side of the wheel - the brake disc side - which would back up the explanation above. However - the front wheel is largely OK and I use those brakes more so what's going on - are the back pads made from something different than the front.?
Mike

 

Mine are gone too....especially the rear spokes. Front wheel rim needs replacing.

 

I have an 18 Adventure Sport and that has black spots on the rear rim within 800 miles. I was thinking it was chain splatter too.

I have tried cleaning it off the WD40 chain cleaner but it didn't much affect.

I didn't even consider it may be corrosion of some sort. Must have a closer look.

I also noticed the stainless spokes are fine but the nipples are corroding. I could have bought an older bike and got these issues for a lot less money.

 

I have an 18 ATAS arriving at the end of the month. I think I'm going to wipe down the wheels and spokes with a light coat of Corrosion X right away and see if I can prevent these corrosion problems. I hear you SrogATAS....Honda's are not supposed to have these problems.

 

Its hard to believe that Honda are still having problems with wheel corrosion.
I have the ATAS, and I have been careful to avoid salted roads. The ATAS hit the roads at the start of March 18 in the UK so its possible some folks have ridden them on salted roads.
I have Alpina wheels fitted. The rims are gold, spokes stainless and nipples aluminium painted black. I will be keeping an eye on them for corrosion, none so far. The rear rim has been very dusty, assume its from the roads rather than brake pads. I have not yet ridden on wet roads.
Here is a little story of what salt can do. I had a brand new Kawasaki GTR 1400. I took it out on dry salted roads in March. I got home and even though the bike looked clean and dry I decided to hose it down to wash off any possible dry salt dust. I wiped it down and pushed it into the garage. Two weeks later I pushed it out and found that each disk had an imprint of the brake pad and across the imprint was pitting. It seemed that salty water had been trapped between pad and disc and caused corrosion. I should have given the pads a better rinse down. Salt really does wreck motorcycles
If anyone knows what these reported mystery black spots are on the rims I am keen to understand.

 

do the spots look like this under magnification (magnifying glass)?

 

They don't look as regular as those in your pic. Here's a blow up of some of mine. I think if it was salt, then it would be affecting both sides of the rear rim, and also the front rim, but it's only the rim under the rear brake disk that is so badly affected, so I'm still leaning towards the braked dust from the rear pad. I need to find out whose pad Honda are using and then see if one can be obtained iron free.
My rims were coated with acf50 before the winter season, but not repeatedly.
Mike

 

I suspect the black spots, star/floret shaped I'm guessing, are from chlorides that were in water that was on the wheel. As the water evaporates you get a localized high concentration of chlorides and it causes pitting (black in color). See snip attached from the PDF at the link.

http://www.fot.de/uploads/docs/fehlermoeglichkeiten.pdf

 

My god, 200 pages, that's some detail on anodising defects. Need some time to read through that ! Thanks for posting.

 

no prob BK...just use cntrl-f (PC) or command-f (Mac) when in the document and type in a search word. You can quickly search it for specific things you are looking for.

 

That's interesting because aluminum oxide, anodizing, has very low electrical conductivity and is performed to make aluminum very resistant to galvanic corrosion. No doubt aluminum has low nobility and would be the anode in the presence of steel or iron but you would still need an electrolyte (chlorides in water for example) present for the corrosion to occur and based on the age of your bike it was aggressive (high rate). Wonder if the root cause is defects in the anodizing job?

 

a little more info attached

 

The rear wheel is likely to get more salt spray than the front as it sits in the muck thrown up by the front. Also the drive side of the rear will get lub splash from the chain. That leaves the disc side of the rear the most vulnerable ?

 

Yes that thought did occur to me Kev. The oil flingmay have protected that side of the rim
Mike

 

Delta Zulu I’m wondering about that too - a fault in the anodising process. This is my second set of wheels. The first ones were replaced because of the spoke problem and the rims were fine. However that set didn’t go through a uk winter, and because I was told back in November that they would replace the wheels again when the stainless spokes were available, I haven’t looked after them as much as the first set.
On the other hand the damage on my rims is much more consistent with pictures of anodising process errors than ‘in service’ corrosion in that 60 page document above.
It’s an annoying problem because unlike my Triumph Rocket which suffered wheel corrosion problems, I cannot simply whip them off and get them powder coated.. nor are alternative Alpina wheels necessarily a solution as if it’s the brake pads or uk salt or my maintenance regime causing it the same may happen.
Mike

 

Wow - this article is illuminating.
https://ebcbrakes.com/articles/brakes-dust/
In effect it's saying brake dust comes from your rotor, not the pads. However if you can design a pad that wears the rotor less, this can help. They are also saying that pads with steel in them add a component to the dust that is particularly corrosive to enamel (presumably therefore anodising too).
When or if I get new wheels because of the spoke problem I'm going to ask them to fit these EBC organic pads FA174.
Mike

 

hi i have also just purchased the ATAS and my front wheels has already started to corrode on both sides of the rim after 426 miles.
also the nipples are going rusty as well, whats the point in putting stainless spokes but nor stainless nipples.
let me know your thoughts.
Stewart.

 

I have a test ride set up tomorrow morning for both AT and ATAS... was planning to buy one in December when it's a buyer's market; this is pretty scary.
I thought all these issues when now taken care of :-(

 

I think I will be painting my rims with ACF-50 next week.

 

Wash and dry Wheels after every run or as soon as you can find time, then brush a thin film of acf50 on them ready for your next ride out ,arduous task but worth it long term , Should keep em dandy and rot free.

 

I have checked my wheels on my ATAS and after 3000 miles of wet and salt roads they are fine only washed it once so far

 

Could it be the acf50 as it leaves a flim on the wheels and the brake dust is sticking to it as I haven't used acf50 on my bike yet

 

ACF is totally brilliant, however it does attract dirt and brake dust. The bike looks shitty but the ACF will still be protecting the parent metal. To remove the ACF you need a cleaner like MUC OFF and a determined wash regime. A quick rinse off wont shift the ACF. I think the trick with ACF is apply it and don't wash it much - if you don't mind the bike looking grubby.

 

Get the Rally Raid wheels. Far better quality than oem, plus their tubeless.