Plastic Deformation

· During the drawing process the grain structure of the steel changes. This changes the resistance to dislocation motion and the hardness of the material.
· To reclaim the desired ductility for the spoke, heat treatment is used.

· Oriented grains from the drawing are re-crystallized to equiaxed form and then increased in size by diffusion controlled growth. This last step reduces the surface component of the total energy.

From: McMahon and Graham, "The Bicycle and the Walkman," Merion (1992)