keyven

I'm thinking of spraying my rims completely black, to fit with the overall aesthetic of the bike. Currently the spokes + outer rim is completely black but there's a strip of reflective silver which would be the contact point of the caliper brakes.

If I spray paint that silver strip will it affect brake quality? Can anyone recommend a particular brand or type?

I understand the silver strip helps with side visibility at night, but I use a plethora of lighting systems and clothing to ensure sufficient visibility at all times.

Thanks for any advice.

Jeff Wills

Don't do it. It's a bad idea.

The silver strip is the contact area for the brake pads. If you paint it:
1. Braking quality will certainly be affected in unpredictable ways.
2. The paint will wear away very quickly.

FBinNY 

Don't bother. it may affect braking or may not that much depending on the specific paint, but it doesn't matter. The use of brakes will quickly remove the paint, first producing an uneven mottled effect and uneven braking, but that phase won't last long wither. Within a short amount of time, you'll be back to bare metal.

There's a reason that makers who color the rims, don't color the brake track, it's a hopeless cause.

elessar007

Don't paint the surface of your rims where the brakes make contact. It will certainly affect brake performance in a negative way. Possibly disastrously. You might lose all stopping power the first time your brakes get wet. if that doesn't happen, the paint will not last anyway. It will flake and rub off. You might even get a shiny coating on your pads as flecks of paint are forced into the rubber and then glaze over your pads rendering them useless until you sand off the glaze. If you are determined to get rid of that look you could save up for a disc-specific wheels etc if your frame is compatible. Cable actuated brakes would enable you to use your existing levers but that's a pretty expensive upgrade and I wouldn't do it Unless you think your frame is worth upgrading to such an extent.

keyven

Thanks so much for the informative replies guys... guess it's quite obvious it's not going to happen, but is there no way to "make" it black without affecting performance (or just slightly)?

With the same brakes, of course.

Marcus_Ti

With rim brakes aluminum rims simply will *never* stay black. Never. Not HED rims or H PLUS SON or even the magical Campy Eurus wheels with their "high-tech" treatment...all those BTW are powerdercoated or anodized on, not rattle-canned.

Rattle can paint will never stand a chance to stick to aluminum due to the natural oxide coating Al gets in open oxygen air....and even hard powdercoat or ano treatments will wear off and look like crap in a month. Only hard ano treatments won't negatively effect breaking, but only for as long as the hardness stays, once it wears down it is a hazard.


Only way to get black rims to stay black, and not be a braking hazard, is with disc-caliper brakes and disc wheels. Or buy carbon rims.

trailangel

Why you want black? I think this trend for all "blacked out" looks terrible.
Plus... not safe.. who can see you..

Wilfred Laurier

I believe hard anodized rims, while they did retain the colour better than other coatings, also caused the metal to become brittle and increased the failure rate dramatically.

Get disc brakes.

FBinNY 

As I posted earlier, it's a hopeless cause.

The brake track is a wear zone, and whatever you put on the surface will quickly wear through to the (silver colored) aluminum. The ONLY way to have a brake track stay black is to have a rim made of a material that's black through and through, like black plastic would be. But that's a different can of worms.

jimc101

I have a pair of Open Pro CD rims from 2000 which disagree with this

keyven

Yeah, understood, but the bike will not be all black... it's black & white... the silver just stands out too much for my taste.

And I have a fair amount of lighting that it should be a non-issue.

Marcus_Ti

I KNOW I GOT IT!

Cast iron bike rims! They're black and by god they'll stay that way!

Wilfred Laurier

I don't believe your brake track should be relied on as a safety beacon.

In the winter where I live, road signs often get partially or fully covered with pure white snow. In the glare of headlights, compared to any reflective surface anywhere in your field of vision, the snow looks dark grey or black. The idea that 'brighter' colours make you more visible is mostly a myth IMHO. If an item isn't actually reflective, I assume it is invisible in the dark.

Wilfred Laurier

And if they do get polished to a silver-grey, you just spread some vegetable oil on them and put them in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes.

keyven

Noted and understood. Thanks to everyone for clarifying the issue. Much appreciated!

Wilfred Laurier

I thought he CD rims had a ceramic coating, and not a hard anodized coating, but I could be wrong.

I thought he CD rims had a ceramic coating, and not a hard anodized coating, but I could be wrong.

Edit: Looked it up and I am wrong.

FBinNY 

Hard anodizing most definitely holds up better than regular anodizing. But not enough better to make much difference. My CD rims are at the half and half phase after about 2,000 miles, and I figure it'll take another 2,000 miles to get them uniformly silver.

Marcus_Ti

Call the Patent Office! We'll make MILLIONS!!!!

And let's hire the twit who wrote the product description here for Campy, he's good at making great sounding tech gibberish:

Shamal Mille - Medium Profile Campagnolo

"The special ceramic Plasma Electrolytic oxidation give the rim an elegant fnish, as does the matte black of the hub, spokes and quick release.
But it is on the braking performance that the Campy Tech lab engineers have made yet another step forward: the refned spiral groove on the braking track allows a reduction in braking times on both wet and dry terrain and guarantees maximum silence even when braking sharply.The special ceramic treatment has been studied to work with the blue Campagnolo® brake pad and gives best results when used with a Campagnolo® brake with the pad always thoroughly cleaned."

FBinNY 

CD is stands for couche dur which translates to hard coated, and in the bike world refers to hard anodizing, though it can stand for any hard coating. Ceramic coated rims are labeled as ceramic coated.

Wilfred Laurier

"The special canola-based coating give the rim an elegant fnish, as does the matte black of the hub, spokes and quick release.
But it is on the baking performance that the Campy Tech lab engineers have made yet another step forward: the renewable non-stick baking track allows a reduction in baking time on both wet and dry mixes and guarantees maximum flavour even when baking sharply. The special treatment has been studied to work with the blue Campagnolo® baking pan and gives best results when used with a Betty Crocker® mix with the pan always thoroughly cleaned."

spdracr39

Paint the wheels solid black and add Disc Brakes. Problem solved.

Retro Grouch 

If that's what you think would make you happy, I'd do it in a heartbeat. There is only one person in the whole world that bike has to make happy and you're it.

Any paint that you can spray on will certainly wear off where the brake pads contact it. It'll leave 2 perfect circles around your brake surface. I guess that you might have some brakeing degradation, but I doubt it. In the worst case, you'll decide that you don't like it and can sand off the remaining paint in about the same amount of time it took you to spray it on. You'll also have learned some things about painting and esthetics in the process.

elessar007

You could also keep a Sharpie marker in your seatbag. Take it out and hold the tip against the brake track while the wheel spins for a temporary effect. It would be the equivalent of make-up for your bike. But like makeup, it wouldn't last very long and wo hi ld require frequent reapplication.
On a side note, Sharpie markers can sometimes be used to conceal small scratches on anodized surfaces that don't see much wear but sadly it isn't a permanent fix.

Jeff Wills

Ha! I was looking at the cast-iron brake disks on my wife's car today. It's been sitting for a while... and they're coated with rust. Neener neener neener...

Marcus_Ti

Your cars discs clearly didn't get the patented Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation treatment from Campy Miracle Services.