Bicycle Mechanics - Can Rims be painted ?

This may sound like a stupid questions... but I just won a cheap pair of rims on ebay for my beater fixie project... they are a satin silver finish... I was really thinking it would be cool to paint them.. either black, or a grayish color...

anyways... I was just thinking of rattle canning them.. with a couple coats of primer, then hit it with some Krylon, or some other decent spray can paint... and then maybe a couple coats of clear...

my question is... will the paint stick to the rim with braking ? will it affect my braking much ? any colors you would suggest.... the bike is a purple and white Centurion LeMans...

jeff

Tape off the brake surface, you could use auto trim tape. I would not paint the brake surface.

It works. But I wouldn't bother getting too fancy. Rim brakes will wear off the paint no matter what.

My son's bike has some rusty old chrome 16" rims. When we put the bike together, we sprayed them flat black. It took a couple months for the front caliper to wear through the paint. The areas that don't contact brake shoe are fine. Brakes also wore through the rust, so at least the side is shiny again. He seems to use the front caliper brake almost exclusively.

In the case of rusty painted steel rims, there seemed to be no detrimental effect on braking, even with 200+ lbs of me testing the brakes. May have even helped.

Come to think of it, my daughter's bike has 20" steel rims that came painted when we found them. And they brake remarkably well with my weight. Her bike was assembled about a year ago, and the factory paint is much more durable, still not worn through to metal. She seems to use the front caliper and the coaster about equally.

remember those araya rims we used to use in our ATBs.

I had the green one.. it was painted, including the brake surface, when I bought it.
the paint will rub off after sometime..
http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=10362&stc=1


My current rim, on my XC MTB, also has a painted surface. the brake surface included.

dude, what rims are those? they look...aero...

dude, what rims are those? they look...aero...

i bought these rims with COLUMBUS decals all over it..

it had this logo...http://www.sanobike.com/old%20site%20images/Col3.GIF

when i saw the columbus logo, i bought it.
bought it cheap for $50 for the whole set(fr and rear). and got the spokes for $30.

Front is radial..
the rear has the drive side: triple, the opposite side: radial.

thanks everyone for your help... :-)

jeff