Sorry I couldn't resist . Question has any one ever powder coated a rim that uses a caliper brake ? How did the PC hold up ? Thanks .

Are you masking the brake tracks?

Pads are designed for proper interaction with metal rather than paint. I would strongly suggest masking off the side of the rims.

Properly applied and cured powder coat will hold up remarkably well. The problem that you will run into is a serious lack of friction. PC is quite slippery.

Masking or the brake track or post machining is required for safety.

Hi Clifford , no I wouldn't want to do that . My thought is to build a all black wheel and use this cover .
Aero Disc Cover - AeroJacket - Wheelbuilder.com

OK guys you set me straight . Thanks . mw.

You can buy NMSW anodized rims.

The anodized coating will hold up for a while, but will eventually become faded or spotty.

Also ceramic coated rims.

Many fixie bikes have both PC rims and caliper brakes (well, maybe front brake). The stopping sucks with these. In time the rims will have any paint scuffed off starting with the high points. So after poor stopping ability the bike looks like S..t. Andy

Ceramic ? I never heard of that . $$? What I have is a pair of Mavic GP4 rims with brown ano. that have rubbed of in places . There still good but not for a new build and especially not with the AeroJacket . So what I think I will do is strip and polish them , I now think the silver that will be showing will make a nice contrast . Thanks for the reply's .

If the cosmetics of an all-black wheel are driving this, perhaps you'd consider a disk or drum brake instead of a rim brake?

Or Mask off the braking track so it stays Bare , then powder coat the rest For Color..

I got a bike with hard anodized Mavic MTB rims, After scouring off the anodizing layer , It had better Braking.


Mavic rims , double ferrule, (sew up [GP4] rims are like that) get slightly wider under spoking tension that is where the anodizing wears off first.. those high spots,
My Mod 3 clincher rims do that too ..

My EX 731 CD was single ferrule double wall . a couple wet down hill stops with an abrasive Compound Brake Pad was enough to go down to the base aluminum.


...

CF rims are fairly black. And braking isn't horribly sucky with the right pads.
If I was struck with an uncontrollable urge to build an all-black, rim brake wheel, That's probably what Id use.
Ceramic coated rims are nice. Mine are also fairly black. "Graphite" might come close. Unless you flake the coating off by denting the rim, their expected life seems indefinite. I've got at least 30.000 miles in my Mavics, with no end in sight. They've gotten a bit shinier though.
A bit expensive perhaps.
Powder coat doesn't hold up long on brake tracks.
While it does, braking sucks.
And there's a good chance that the brake track will become discolored, negating the purpose of the coated track in the first place.

Here was an article on RBR about Cerakote.
Cerakote frame?

Cerakote Coatings

Hopefully the censors don't kill that one If it does, search for cerakote.

Anyway, it might be worth trying if you can get someone willing to do the application.

I hate re-building wheels... so it would probably be worth it to me to buy an all-new rim and all-new spokes for the project.

However, I do have some old black Mavic rims that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. So, they might be worth experimenting on.

Mavic had ceramic coated ("CD") rims at one time, on the brake track, and they worked reasonably well but at some point the ceramic would chip off
on a limited area. Had that happen on two sets of rims, surprisingly it did not grab while braking over the chipped off areas which were 10-14 mm in
size. Mavic discontinued these about 5-7 yrs ago. The price premium over non-CD rims was not much.

On another note it would be interesting to know what brake pads the TdF riders were using on the rainy downhill 40+ mph descents with carbon rims.
Seemed like they never had any trouble braking even with pouring rain.