Originally Posted by
3alarmer
...+1 The later manufactures have been fine IME. If these are hard anodized, I suspect they are of a later origin.
Araya's lightweight CTL370 model was from the late 80's, featured hard-anodize process, but still had the semi-circular bead hooks.
I had both wired-on and folding tires blow off of my front CTL370 after brake-heating descents in the bay area. One was just as I rounded the last right-hander descending Page Mill Rd, another was a mid-city descent in Pasadena. Both times I was warned of impending blast when the front tire thumped against the fork legs several times before it blew. Bth were somewhat-aged tires with nary any grip afforded by the aging rubber covering the bead, which I thought might have made these blow-offs somewhat more likely, but this was not something that would ever happen most hook-beaded rims.
I once bought an un-ridden Univega tourer with wide Araya clinchers, and the rim seam on both rims had been severely over-machined at the weld, making the braking smoothness nonexistent. I've also had more than one pair of Weinmann Concave rims with this identical severe problem.
I have been quite happy with most of the Araya rims I've had, but a good number were also substandard in some way imo.