Hello! I was washing my bike and doing some irregular yearly service when I noticed these cracks in the paint on the rear rim. Same with the front only a bit less pronounced.
Is this indicative of aluminum fatigue? Any similair experiences? The rim is 7 years old with 20k of mostly road kilometers on it so it would not suprise me much
by J_B_T
5 Comments
Ya just looks like rim fatigue to me I think you could get an easy 10k more out of it.
Rims should last a hell of a lot longer than 20k km. My _newest_ set of wheels is over 7 years old lol with my oldest being probably 30 years old. I’m not sure what that is, but I don’t think it’s Al fatigue. Did you clean them with a brillo pad or something?
That’s not paint but an anodization layer, and I think the correct technical term for what’s happening is: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazing)
This has been asked here before, and if you check this older post there are some knowledgeable comments among the fear-mongering: [https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench/comments/1570qym/have_these_marks_around_both_wheels_brand_new/](https://www.reddit.com/r/bikewrench/comments/1570qym/have_these_marks_around_both_wheels_brand_new/)
I would personally just keep riding it, as long as you don’t see any bigger cracks around the spoke eyelets.
The uniformity of it suggests to me that it’s just the top coat that’s cracking. If it was structural I’d expect to see the cracking around the spoke holes.
There are more comprehensive answers in this thread, but my 2 cents are, “This is just the anodizing, ride on.”
Learned something new from u/antti5 re: crazing, thanks for that!