Normal for rims

[jimmy156]

Hello all,

This is what the entire circumference of both of the wheels on my gravel bike look like after a couple of months of mostly road riding with a couple of "gravel" rides.

Its this "normal" or do the wheels have an issue. I have contacted the bike manufacturer who are going to contact the wheel manufacturer, but won't get back to me for 24 hours, so i thought i would ask on here!

[jimmy156]

A slightly closer up view of what looks like lots of hairline cracks / splitting in the paint

[FSEngineer]

What make are the rims? My DT Swiss H1700 rims on my eMTB looked like this pretty much from new, doesn't seem to have affected the strength of the wheels over 18 months of abuse with a fat knacker at the helm (if that gives you any confidence)

[jimmy156]

They are DT Swiss as it happens.

Thanks for your response. I haven’t owned a bike for a decade or so, so it could well be a case of “they all do that sir” but i thought I’d ask!

[FSEngineer]

No worries - must be something to do with the paint finish DT use, I've not had it on any other rims. Rims are designed to flex, so it must just be that the paint is a bit too rigid to avoid cracking

[z4RRSchris]

sorry what are we even looking at?

[jimmy156]

z4RRSchris said:

sorry what are we even looking at?

Along the middle part of the rim, you can see that the paint/surface is cracking (lots of tiny cracks). As FSEngineer says, it looks like the rim flexes during use and causes the finish on the wheel to crack.