Originally Posted by BluesDawg

Hard anodizing makes otherwise strong rims more prone to cracking. Mavic's MA-2 was one of the best road rims ever made, strong and fairly light. They made an anodized version, the MA-40, with hard anodizing. They looked great and made great wheels. But after a few years people started having problems with them cracking around the eyelets. I got several good years out of mine but eventually they cracked at the eyelets. I use silver rims now.