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 My Ness Wheels are CHROMED!!Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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TheMike |
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The last couple of winters I was considering getting my wheels chromed on my Ness Vision. I put 50k miles on her in 2.5 years and no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't keep them nice. The last time I tried to polish them up they looked like a wheel that's been in winter salt. Pitted and flat out ugly. Wear and tear on the road was making them look flat and not as nice as they should be. I ride her hard but I also take care of her extremely well. Aside from the wheels, there is no telling of it's mileage and use. I came across a thread here of a guy that had his Hammer wheels chromed. They looked great, were holding up perfectly, and he had no regrets. That was all I needed to take the plunge. So just after the 1st of the year I put the Ness on blocks and sent the wheels of to get worked over. I also decide to have the pulley done too. Here's how they looked before shipping them off 9 January.  1 day shy of 10 weeks later I got them back. Here's how they looked.      The parts are impeccable. Gorgeous. What I learned is that no matter if parts are chromed or powder coated, the applications always get where the parts are mated. Meaning they won't go back together. After making some calls and speaking with the chromers, it's a normal thing to have to sand down where the parts mate. So, after 6 long hours, I used 80 grit sandpaper to where all the parts go together and poof. Perfect mating. Even where the wheel bearings go in I had to sand off the chrome. Wheels, bearings, rotors, pulley, and new chrome 90 degree stems assembled. Here's the finished parts.   So you may ask where did I have these done? A place called Chrome Pros Plating, in TX. A little bit of the story my accompany with this info. Right after I sent these rims out I did a little research. Yes, I know. I should have done this before hand but I got excited over the report from a fellow Victory rider and didn’t. IF you search on these guys you will find a crap load of scary reports and warnings against using them. I won’t go into what I found as it didn’t do me any good and to be honest it won’t you either. These guys know their stuff. Apparently there are only 3 places in the US that does this to aluminum wheels. If you have the time, aren’t in a hurry, and can be patient, you won’t be disappointed. If you, like me, want updates, and a person to talk to about what’s going on, don’t even think about it. I was told 4-6 weeks to get my stuff done. I called about 4 to get an update and was just told “we say 4-6 weeks so nothing to report”. I called again at the 6 week mark. Nothing. No report. To make my heart skip more than a few beats, their website was down, and emails were rejected. This scared the hell out of me to put it mildly. I found a post during a search on these guys that had the owners cell number. To make a very long story I spoke to him on numerous occasions. I was not holding back on telling him my concern on not knowing what was going on and finding their web site and related stuff was down. They are very busy, and do not hesitate to tell you that everytime you speak to them. They don’t have any sort of electronic tracking of where stuff is, nor is there any easy quick way to find out. Jeremy, the owner, understood my concerns and made serious effort to answer all my questions. Another very long story short, my wheels were having serious problems with porosity. The front was bad but the rear was taking a lot of work. Plating, stripping, replatting, stripping etc. I’m not a metallurgist but the problems in the wheel were only showing up when it came to the chrome application. I can’t tell you what they did but they got it done right. Jeremy told me that in the 15 years they’ve been doing this he could only remember 4 wheels they couldn’t get right. Fortunately for me, mine didn’t make the 5th. Here’s the breakdown of the costs. $1144 $699 for the two wheels $200 for the pulley $170 for the hubs $75 for shipping back to me These guys have a 21 step process to include a 5 chrome layers. “show chrome” is 3 layers. I’m told I treat them like I would an OEM chrome part so no special care as a result of them being chromed after the fact. Mounted on the bike:    I am going to be going to 100% ceramic brakes. Rotors and pads. The rotors are still in the works by Lyndal but here is the design I am going with. Chrome centers.  | |||
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| Arkainzeye |
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| pollolittle |
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| TheMike |
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