Wrong rims?

[mickle]

The black is invariably anodising. It wears off. It's not a big deal.

 

[mickle]

If Spesh are doing that then they have fallen a long way from what they used to be.

Oh yeah? I was using, until very recently, a wheel from a 1992 Allez which had a pinned and eyeletted, non-machined and black anodized Campagnolo rim. Their 1985 Stumpjumper came equipped with Saturae rims which were pinned and eyeletted, non-machined and grey anodized.

When you say; 'What they used to be', To which period in their history do you refer?

 

[MattHB]

The black is invariably anodising. It wears off. It's not a big deal.

Fair enough. It just seemed odd to put it on there in the first place if it was going to wear off again.

 

[baznav]

It can't be avoided due to the manfacturing process you can't anodise just a part of the rim because thay are dipped in a tank of fluid and electricity is then applied to the fluid and the rim take on colour of said fluid, as said the only time you get silver braking surface is when that part ot the rim is machined afterward.

 

[MattHB]

Thanks for all your guidance folks, I'll relax now about it I think. I think the bit I didn't like was the large quantities of metal in the pads when I swapped them out, but the new ones (Scott) show no such signs thankfully.

I was being too mechanically sensitive!

 

[fossyant]

Like what has said above, the anodising process coats the whole rim. Depending upon the rim, this is either left on, or machined off to an extent. Some just take the paint off, others - Mavic etc. use additional processes to make sure the join is totally smooth as well on their better rims. Mavic have a new rim finish Exalth, that isn't machined,but has a special finish to maximise braking on top end rims (light weight also) but it remains unknown as the anodising wears off does it look a bit 'scruffy' after use ?

I have some Mavic Open 4's that were anodised fully, the brake surface has finally worn through the 'paint' now the rims have ended on the commuter, so looks neater rather than dark grey/alloy scratch type finish.

 

[lukesdad]

Well you live and learn, all my top end rims have always been machined, something i ll need to check in the future

 

[Zoiders]

Oh yeah? I was using, until very recently, a wheel from a 1992 Allez which had a pinned and eyeletted, non-machined and black anodized Campagnolo rim. Their 1985 Stumpjumper came equipped with Saturae rims which were pinned and eyeletted, non-machined and grey anodized.

When you say; 'What they used to be', To which period in their history do you refer?

Don't cherry pick instances of different spec kit from 20 plus years ago, yes anodized rims used to be common for rim breaking but not in this day and age, anything that is not made from cheese is likely going to be machined.

The QC has gone down with Spesh, one of the guys I ride with returned a rather expensive FSR recently as so many things went wrong with it in the first month that it was easier to get a full refund than wait for them all to be replaced, not suprisingly the rims were an issue as all of the spoke eyelets tore out and both the front and rear shocks blew the seals.

There were a rash of wheel problems with the langsters recently and IIRC they did fork recalls on the Tri-Cross range as well. In all it's not looking good for such a short space of years.

I get the feeling some of the OE kit and OEM branded stuff is falling somewhat below the quality of spec that they are quoting and charging for.

 

[andrew_s]

Rims are machined for marketing reasons.
Pinned, unmachined rims have microscopic ripples from where the rim is bent into a circle, and these can cause brake squeal. There's also the actual pinned joint than can make the brakes make ticking noises as it passes between the brake blocks. Both of these can cause the uninitiated to bring a new wheel back to the shop, so the shops prefer to sell the machined rims. Neither the shop nor the manufacturer care that the machining is equivalent to a couple of thousand miles off the rim life.
These days, the only non-machined rims you can get are disk-specific rims.

If you find that your brake blocks are getting bits of grit or metal from the rim embedded in them, change them to a different type.
Brake blocks vary quite a lot in how easily they pick stuff up, and ones that do pick up a lot will wear your rims a lot faster. I've had rims wear out in 5-6000 miles, which is less than the front tyre.

 

[Smut Pedaller]

As far as I know all rims that have been extruded and bent into a hoop have the ripple in them, not just pinned.

I have a set of Campag Zondas which I reviewed
http://smutpedaller.blogspot.com/2011/04/campagnolo-athena-gruppo-zonda-wheels.html
They are mid-range wheels and they appear to be pinned because you can barely see the joint. Typically the joint is located opposite the valve hole (as they are both weak spots) and typically manufacturers will use the brand sticker to cover it there. The joint is completely flush and I don't notice it at all, there is no noise during braking or anything like that.