My 15 year old front ceramic rim is starting to look quite ragged. I’m struggling to find anything. Anyone know of any lurking in an LBS ?

Thanks

what’s your current rim? (size and hole count)

you should still be able to get them from mavic and DT, I think Exal are still offering a ceramic option too, but they’re getting harder to find in stock, mostly being ordered in….

worth checking ebay too as they pop up NOS from time to time

There are some NOS 26″ Exal ones that have been on eBay for some time now at £20 a pair. Surprised they’ve not been snapped up.

just been off to check them out – depends what OP currently using but very burly at nearly 700g a rim! Exal do make some decent rims for touring an utility use though.

26″ XC. Current one is a Bontrager, and in 28 hole. Those Exals look great (I’d put up with an extra 200g) but I’d have to find some hubs…

28H?

how about this DT 4.1 (similar to your bonty rim in weight/intended use)

15 years? Do all ceramic rims last that long?! Or does the OP come from the ‘braking’s for wusses’ school of thought?

I’ve not yet seen a ceramic rim die due to being actually worn out, normally the ceramic coating chips away over time leaving it patchy and pitted and they end up being junked due to this long before they would have actually worn through like a normal rim.

Could be the OPs wheel only sees occasional use on a race bike for all we know so not much point jumping to conclusions, I’ve got normal Alu rims that are older than that on one bike.

I had some mavic ones back in the day, lasted less then a week in the lakes. It wasn’t the braking surface that failed!

It’s the bike I use around Woburn so no long-duration braking. However, due to the sandy nature of the trails, normal pads can last less than a day whereas ceramic ones last at least a year.

The coating itself is now about 75% gone. The ceramic pads don’t work well on an aluminum surface. A previous rim worn to this level is now doing excellent service on a disc braked bike !

My experience of the coatings is that the Bonty was by far the best, Mavic’s OK, DT Swiss not so good (I trashed the rear Bonty in Chamonix and have been through a couple of Mavics and one DT on the rear since).

Many thanks for the link, amedias, I’ll be on to that (why am I so rubbish at finding this stuff ?) – despite what I said above, DT Swiss ceramic still way better than straight aluminum.

I had a set of Mavic 117 SUP CD Ceramics back in the day. The back wheel died from ‘big air’ and the front eventually lost a bit of ceramic coating due to a ding, that caused snatching braking. Years of use up to that point though.

Currently have a set of Ceramic Open Pro’s, maybe 10 years/30000km of use, but the wet weather performance has deteriorated over the years as the braking surface has polished super-smooth.

Verdict – recommended if you run rim brakes and tend not to write off wheels. Cheaper in the long run than replacing aluminium surfaced rims. Trade off is wet weather braking can be compromised.

The mavics had two distinct versions. One done using an environmentally unsound process, and later a green friendly one.

Guess which version lasted years and which used to turn up at the shop with shards of ceramic in the wrapping before they’d even been built.

Currently have a set of Ceramic Open Pro’s, maybe 10 years/30000km of use, but the wet weather performance has deteriorated over the years as the braking surface has polished super-smooth.

I used to get that too, but found mine was caused by a buildup of pad material ‘in’ the coating and a decent scrub with one of those cleaner blocks (like big rubber pencil erasers but a bit abrasive) once in a while would bring it back to almost new performance.

My experience of the coatings is that the Bonty was by far the best

I agree, I got what I assume is the same rim as you from a 1999 Bonty Racelite wheelset which sadly has cracked around a number of the eyelet holes so had to be junked, but the coating is still in good shape.

sadly has cracked around a number of the eyelet holes so had to be junked

exactly what happened to my rear, probably due to too much pressure to avoid the pinch punctures I was getting. The rim would deform under pressure causing snatch braking, but be perfectly true when deflated. The cracks were only visible once I took the rim tape off – invisible from the top – so took a bit of finding…