General Category => Wheels & Tires => Topic started by: Mo in Mo on February 20, 2017, 01:13:00 PM
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I've got my bike in pieces and ready to get it restored. I need some opinions on the rims. I called some places in my state Missouri. They all said they can't/won't chrome the rims. They said since they are essentially bike rims it wont stay on (flake off) or they are too thin to chrome. I had one tell me they could nickel them and they recommended I nickel everything they said it looks better. I don't know the difference in looks of nickel vs chrome.
I've seen a lot of bikes that people have powder coated the rims. Is this because they couldn't get them chromed or was it for the durability? I would like to keep them as close to original as possible and they were chromed to begin with. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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I think the reason you don't see many chromed rims is two fold. First, most of these rims are pitted from rust over the years, and it would take a lot of work to get them ready for the chrome. Second reason is probably cost.
Nickel would probably look good, but is not as shiny as chrome. Motorcycles built in the 1920-1930's used nickel,as I don't think the chrome process was available yet.
Good chrome is expensive, because first the base material is copper plated, then nickel plated, and then finally the chrome. If you get parts from china, a lot of times they skip these steps and just chrome on top of steel. This is why their crap rusts within a year.