I'm building up a faggin' (apostrophe added for hilarity) and it has a chrome fork and stays so I'd like to get a wheel with a chrome finish that somewhat matches. does velocity make a chrome rim that I'm just not seeing out there? I've seen a "bright silver" listed but I'm thinking that might look weird. any other fancy chrome 700c rims out there that I just cant find. I have the thought of having some chromed locally stored away in my mind too so I'm just looking for purchasable rims at this point.
thanks!

Chrome implies the rim is steel - which is a material you won't find good 700c wheels made of - at least not any that I've seen. I think polished aluminum would be closest you will get to the shiny chrome effect.

Chrome rim? I wonder what that would weigh?

Here is the "bright silver" Aerohead on a chrome bike.

You won't find an actual chromed rim in 700c. It would have to be steel. Now I am sure you don't want to use steel. You can have aluminum chromed but I get a headache thinking about the price. What I suggest is starting with an alloy rims like a Mavic CPX 33


You will have to remove the stickers and buy a can of easy-off oven cleaner to strip the anodising.

Then you will need to use super fine (#0000) steel wool to removed the dark grey/black by product of this process... underneath the alloy should already be in good shape. In fact you could probably buff it with the steel wool and then get some Autosol or other metal/alluminum polish and polish out the rim to a very nice shine. The disadvantage is you have to always be sure to take some polish to it every one in a while to keep it bright. A felt or cotton buffing wheel and a drill will make this process a lot faster.

Or you could watch ebay for a set of super champion gentleman 81 vintage clincher tires and expect to pay top dollar. those were 700c polished alloy.

I think I know this bike.

EDIT: I would probably just go with the aeroheads like Rad.

hmmmm , thats what I was thinking it would look like. a little too much like stock rims methinks. I'll have to see if the red ones will match the rest of the bike.

edit: yeah , you know this one thanks for the info btw

Williams wheels system 19s. They are super nice, I love mine
https://bikeforums.net/showthread.php...ght=guerciotti
https://www.williamscycling.com/

Deep-V's do not need chrome, they are ugly enough already.

But if you like them and you like shiny. Buy plain silver ones, remove the anodizing and polish them. Then they will look chromesqe if you do a good job.

I like the look of chrome. Sadly I've never seen an alloy rim chromed. I've seen polished aero rims of a forgotten manufacturer at Freewheel on Hayes. I have a pair of bright silver deep-Vs on a schwinn breeze and it ain't even close.

if they are track rims, freewheel has the araya 1w's. great rims. i used them for a while, and now I am using the araya adx510's which are not as shiny but otherwise the same (AFAIK). Theyre super cheap from Cycles d' oro. any shop that has an EAI account can get 1w's. We had them at pacific but sold out. Will be getting more soon, though.

If you work hard enough, you can polish aluminium to a mirror finish.
My steps for the disc I got. and materials.
truing stand
paint remover and scraper
Water Bowl
Sanding block
220,300,400,600,800,1000 grit sandpaper
polishing compound ( the white stuff)
mothers AL polish
auto buffing power tool with the wool and microfiber pads.
Step one: remove paint
Step Two: mount in truing stand that is bolted to something
Step Three: wet sand with increasing grit by rotating wheel, rinse your sanding block often and change water between grits
Step Four:Buff with polishing compound and wool pad. remove compound with microfiber pad.
Step Five: Buff with mothers AL polish and microfiber pad. remove polish with microfiber pad.



I took this picture before I polished it a few more times. It looks even better now.

It took about 8 or so hours to complete.

I imagine you could do the same with cxp-33's with less time, just dont use the truing stand and do it before the wheel is laced.

I have polished Velocity Aeros on my fixed gear. The bike is basically all red, chrome and polished aluminum. It seems to work well enough together.

This is one of my bikes with one of my PowerTap wheelset

Velocity Deep V in Bright Silver non machined https://www.epictrain.com/images/Scott_Full_Bike.jpg

This is because, I believe, it can't be done. It's an electro deposition technique, and depends on the material conducting the right way. Aluminium is much less conductive than steel.

Wrong!



And aluminum is a better conductor than steel.

That chrome plated Record triple came from England, by the way.

I know your looking for hard-riding Deep Vees, but Sun CR-18's come from the factory so highly polished that they look like chrome.

My, what a lovely bike.

https://www.ligerowheels.com/



on the "other" forum, there have been complaints of long waits and almost no contact after money was exchanged. buyer beware...

nice rims though.

Chrome also makes for a terrible braking surface, especially when wet. Polished aluminium is the way to go.

regarding polishing cxp33s: how is the braking surface afterwards?

Polished aluminum is the way us C&V folks would go, cause we're not afraid of hard work, in fact we're proud of it. But the average fixie fashion victim would be better served by just spending money: take your Deep Vees to a powder coater who does custom car work. They can put on a chrome-like PC plus a clear over it that will scare small dogs and elderly pedestrians...just what you want, right? And it will set you back a few semolians (but not as much as real chrome plating on aluminum would).

It most certainly can be done. Look at the instrument panel on a 64-66 mustang... chromed plastic! "Vacuum Plating", common in 60's and 70's era american cars.

And still used for the chromed sprue of parts in model car kits, correct?

-Kurt

well, for the record, I am neither afraid of labor (especially not labors of love or hobbies - I look forward to the work) nor am I some "fixie fashion victim." I enjoy building and craftsmanship. so, I'm not sure why your comment was directed toward me, if that was your intention.

anyways, I am planning on building a wheelset this summer and I have a few ideas, one of which is a mirror-like polished rim. I am considering cxp33 or aeroheads (or aeros if I cannot source them as stock polished). I am just curious if I were to polish such rims using the method that cyclotoine wrote about that the braking surface would lose effectiveness or be the same prior to the polishing. I know from second hand experience that non-machined powdercoated rims are terrible and loud until they are broken in...and the result is not quite attractive. I would like to avoid this. I'd appreciate your input.

I apologize for seeming to lump you in with a group (fixie fashion victims) without consulting you as to your true affiliations: I'm sorry. I was speaking more broadly about the proliferation of such in my city, not about you in particular, I know it didn't read that way (as I re-read it) that was sloppy of me..
But to me anything that combines "Deep Vees" and "chrome plating" smells like fashion, not craftsmanship nor practicality...but that's just me. Since you're concerned with retaining a useful braking surface (not something the fixie rider would care about, BTW) I suggest that you should *not* polish that part of the rim, and consider abrading it with fine wet/dry sanding if you powdercoat.
I should add that I am a fashion victim myself, I just follow the "cranky old f*rt" skool.

fixies don't often carry brakes; it is a fashion faux pas in the fixie world, of course. I think you'd be best served by polishing only up to the braking surface, if you are going to run rim brakes. The polish will be quickly eroded by any crap that gets in between the brake and the rim.

I'd like to take an official position on the fixie thing, after watching the smoke and flames for months now. Yep, they sometimes ruin dropouts. Not as effectively as the crusher ruins dropouts. I am all for any human-powered vehicle on the road; we should not, as a fairly important resource in the cycling world, discourage anyone, in any way, from propelling themselves around without assistance from fossil fuels.

If a dropout gets cut; if an original finish gets spraypainted; if some cable guides get trashed; we need to remember - to almost everyone else on the continent, it is a ooooold bicycle that is only one step away from the dumpster (if that). If art, artisanship, or style gets it back on the road, that is a good thing.