Ceramic wheels any good?

[Abzotech]

I was thinking of getting a Mavic Ceramic wheels built with Ultegra hubs for my rain bike. But my local shop is talking me out of it. Say's it is worthless if you are more than 150 lbs. Any comments on on this or any word of wisdom on this?

[DonH]

I have used Mavic 517 ceramic rims on my mountain bikes that use v-brakes for several years with very good results. They definitely cost more than non-ceramics,but if you arent the type to wreck wheels frequently I feel they are worth the extra bucks (for off-road anyway).The braking surfaces last longer and I think they work better when its wet. My average weight is 170 lbs. but i dont think weight could really be a determining factor in deciding between ceramic or non-ceramic.

[Climb01742]

funny. i'm building up a bike for commuting and bad weather and my LBS recommends ceramic braking surfaces. maybe it's like salt...first salt is the worse thing in your diet...now it's not so bad. the "experts" can't agree! :rolleyes:

[Andreu]

I don't know about the weight thing ...150 lb seems a little over cautious to me. The one massive advantage I have with ceramics and mudguards (on my rain bike) is the lack of that black crap that aluminium rims seems to produce when mixed with rain.
Go for ceramics.
A

[scooter01]

I have the same mavic wheels on my Fiorelli, my rain bike and they work great. I weigh in at 180. I really like the stopping power the ceramics offer, its better than the SSC's on my Legand.

[zap]

Still have a ceramic rim and it works well dry or wet (especially). The biggest grip I have with ceramic rims is pad wear.

Don't know why weight would be an issue. I too say go for it.

[bironi]

I have commuted for years and rode year round in Seattle/Olympia region. You will save money in the long run.

Byron

[Brian Smith]

I've had problems with Mavic ceramic coatings in particular flaking off in short order (under 1 year.) On top of all of that, braking performance was very marginally better when the pads first contacted the rims, especially when wet, but upon hard brake application, there was just not much friction available.
If your only problem is that you are wearing through rim sidewalls at an alarming rate, and you ride in wet conditions all the time, and you don't care about maximizing brake performance, then ceramic sidewalls may be for you.
You will eat through brake pads more rapidly and probably suffer worse brake performance to boot. Techs build wheels for really cheap rates, support their craft and possibly save yourself money; have some silver rims built up into wheels and have rims replaced as necessary.

[Serotta PETE]

I was thinking of getting a Mavic Ceramic wheels built with Ultegra hubs for my rain bike. But my local shop is talking me out of it. Say's it is worthless if you are more than 150 lbs. Any comments on on this or any word of wisdom on this?


I have used the ceramic rims for years and many miles with no problems. Unfortunately I am much more than 150 lbs............ :beer: - - that beer and wine does it :banana:

Only negative is that they go thru bad pads quicker. I would recommend them for ay wet or "less than " sunny and dry environment.

PETE

[DonH]

I forgot to mention that I did have a slight bit of flaking on one of my ceramic rims after a month of limited use. The LBS where i bought the rims and had the wheels built sent it to Mavic and it was replaced free of charge including labor in less than two weeks.... Anyway out of 8 ceramic rims I have bought in the last 6 years, I had one issue with flaking and the rim was replaced promptly and at no cost to me thanks to Mavic and my local shop. Another reason to buy local :)

[11.4]

Ceramic coating can be a high-precision, high-performance job or something cheap. For bike rims, cheap is all you need (and all you can afford, unless you want $300 rims). The biggest problem usually has to do with durability (which has to do primarily with fusion temperature). Since only part of the rim is coated, and Mavic doesn't want to anneal the aluminum in the rim completely (which would make it as soft as an old Fiamme Yellow Label) it doesn't get the best temperature control. In the recent change from grey to black finish on the ceramic Mavic rims, the quality has picked up quite a bit.

[Brian Smith]

...why not spend the same or less than ceramic rims and certainly get better brake performance with a hub brake? My choice for a rain bike would be a nice nexus hub with roller brakes and the dynamo too if I were using a light. Sachs VT5000s are time-proven durable, but a bit of a kludge with sprung aero brake levers, assuming you would use drop bars and current levers... I've built forks before with threaded inserts (water bottle mounts) in the legs to make the installation of roller brakes extra "clean looking," but the available clamp on clips to accept the torque arms don't look THAT bad, especially if you've got a fender on there anyway....

I think Peter White cycles in NH might even offer built wheels and some limited "support" for their use, too.

I've even used roller brakes on big-tired MTBs for use in the steeps, and I think they're a GREAT value.

OK, I'm off my "soapbox" now, stick with the roadrace equipment if that is what you feel comfortable with, but a lot of sharp mechanics have found value in these less common selections.

Have fun riding regardless of what you end up choosing.

[11.4]

Probably fair to say that on a dry day, a good pair of brake pads against a smooth uncoated, untreated aluminum surface gives the best amount of braking. That's part of why this is the preferred approach on Cosmic Carbones and other such wheels preferred for overall road racing (as opposed to carbon braking surfaces, etc.). It's all about the most contact area that is effective without glazing the rim or otherwise leading to deterioration of performance.

Ceramic rims do improve certain aspects of braking in the wet. On the positive, they are simply more "grabby" when there's otherwise a film of water on the rims and your brakes are doing just what car wheels do when they hydroplane. Plus, wet weather braking really mutilates the sidewalls of rims as abrasive stuff eats into the aluminum. The ceramic coating also seems to resist buildup of a water film, making for more effective braking. In addition, the ceramic coating is relatively rough so it effectively acts like an air-spaced insulator when you're braking. This is a plus with tubulars, insofar as you don't heat up the rim cement as much and tires will stay on better on long mountain descents. In the rain, ceramic causes a very slight and questionable detriment: braking on an aluminum rim causes the rim to heat up, leading at least to some degree to burning water off the rim and drying it out (at which point braking improves). However, if it's very wet, no brake pad the length of what we ride with will produce enough heat to burn off the water that immedately gets replaced, so I really don't care about loss of heating.

Subjectively, I find that ceramic braking surfaces aren't quite as grabby as a dry aluminum surface, but don't lock up as you brake harder, especially in the wet. They certainly outlast bare aluminum braking surfaces in the wet (training fairly consistently through a wet winter, I eat through a rear Reflex silver rim in a winter, while a ceramic one will last indefinitely).

By the way, a drawback to the old grey Open Pro ceramics was that the grey anodizing involved a high-temperature process that hardened the aluminum, causing premature cracking around the ferrules. The rims put up to all kinds of abuse, but then seemed to crack at the spoke holes all of their own accord. The new black Open Pro ceramics, at least so far, don't seem to crack at the ferrules so much. We'll see with more time on them.

[Bradford]

funny. i'm building up a bike for commuting and bad weather and my LBS recommends ceramic braking surfaces. maybe it's like salt...first salt is the worse thing in your diet...now it's not so bad. the "experts" can't agree! :rolleyes:

Climb, I think it is just our shop. When they built my rear wheel for my touring bike, they used a ceramic rim. Certainly no performance issues as far as breaking is concerned, and I've been as heavy as 230. What was the issue your shop was concerned about, performance or durability?

[Kane]

I kept waiting for someone to suggest it, but no one did. I have a steel fork and I am contemplating having some disc mounts welded on the front rim so that I can switch to a Avid mechanical brake on the front. The cost is a little higher in the short term, but the performance blows the door off anything else. In the end it is always a good idea to stop the bike better. Disc brakes simply work better and the weight is not revolving. Compared to V brakes, Marta SL's weigh about the same. With a road bike you have to go mechanical unless you use some unorthodox brake lever with a bar end shifter or down tube shifter for the front chain ring.

Of course Lance uses a down tube shifter on a heavy climb day in the Tour de France for his front derailleur. But, I think that the mechanical disc is the solution. The reality is that rear brakes do very little at best.

Cheers,

Kane

[mdeeds71]

Who makes the 700c wheel with disc brake drilling???

[musgravecycles]

Who makes the 700c wheel with disc brake drilling???

No one...Everyone...

You can lace ANY 700c rim into a disc hub and WALLA, you've got instant performance. I built a road frame that used Avids, it was a great bike. You've gotta have 135 spacing in the rear though...
Sooner or later when the 'industry' is looking for something new to make all of our old stuff obsolete discs are coming to the road.

[11.4]

And you can have Chris King or Phil Wood (and probably others) provide a disc-compatible hub with 130 spacing -- it's just a matter of changing the end-cap spacers on the axles.

[Jeff N.]

Ceramic rims are just fine, but expect accelerated brake pad wear. Jeff N.