I have not tried them, but seriously considered them within the past couple of weeks. After the exchange below, I decided to not go the ceramic coated route for an all road/gravel wheelset. While the ceramic would likely be nice to have for the improved braking under some conditions, frankly I was also interested in them for the aesthetics - the all black rims. So I reached out to Boyd. Nothing unexpected or concerning in his response, which I thought I would share here, but I just decided there was no need to incur the upgrade expense, or heightened chance of wear on the ceramic coating, for this build.
I will be interested in your experience with them, since I will definitely consider them for another build in the future.
On May 25, 2017 3:01 AM, ormojo wrote:
Hello!
. . . keep coming back to the Altamont Lite with T11 build.
And, then, just as I'm getting ready to order, I get distracted by your Ceramic Coated option. I love the look, and the improved braking performance.
But my one concern is durability of the ceramic coating. I will be using this bike on light gravel, in the rain, and some packed dirt (road mostly, but also possibly trail).
Will the coating hold up? Or will it just be a matter of time before the coating is wearing away and the appearance is splotchy (something I really don't want).
Thanks in advance for any info!
Paul
Hey Paul,
The ceramic coating on the rims should hold up well, but then there could be a situation that would cause it to wear a streak into the rim. If by chance you get a rock stuck into your brake pad, that would wear a piece of the coating away if you were doing braking with the rock trapped.
For example with the rims we tell people not to use the same brake pads on regular alloy wheels as on the ceramic coated wheels. This is because you can pick up tiny slivers of aluminum that would then wear into the ceramic coating.