Originally Posted by
T Stew
But if the outer black was not hard-anodized then wouldn't the grey hard-anodized surface show through somewhere where the black is worn? The whole brake surface on one of the rears is completely worn through and partially on another. I'm not personally familiar with the process but are you saying anything that is HA and is a different color than this grey actually has another layer of color separate from the HA? Like for example my flashlights that are HA black?
Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why you think your rim is hard-anodized. If it were hard-anodized, you *would* have the dull dark grey/greenish color. It sounds like you have a thinner layer of cosmetic anodizing, which is wearing through to the bare aluminum. As joejack951 notes, hard-anodizing can also wear through on the braking surface, although since the coating is thicker this takes longer. Here is a picture of the braking surface on my Mavic MA40 rim some years back. It shows the hard-anodized coating having mostly worn away from the braking surface.
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Originally Posted by
T Stew
Unfortunately there is a couple cracks on the one worn rear rim, around a couple spoke nipples. I know you all were talking about HA being more crack prone but I assume in this case it doesn't have anything to do with the coating and more about the strength of the aluminum that isn't reinforced on this model around the spoke nipples. I've been continuing to ride it and it hasn't worsened but I'm watching it. Was like that when I got it a couple years ago. That bike (my Prologue) is scheduled for a complete rebuild though, I'll be ditching the wheels, but my Ontare also with them I'll keep but they have seen little use and probably will receive the same from me.
Any rims can crack at the spoke holes (more likely on the drive-side of the rim, since these spokes are much higher-tension on a rear wheel). HA rims are simply more likely to crack, or at least that has been the accepted wisdom for some years. That spoke nipple will continue to pull through the rim with mileage, and the rim will need replacing. Here's a picture of that MA40 rear rim which started cracking at two of the drive-side spoke holes.
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