GT250 cafe project - wheel powdercoat questions

[jabcb]

Making some headway on the GT250 cafe project.
Was considering using black shouldered rims from MikesXS, but the bike’s owner looked at my XS650 & decided he doesn’t like those rims.
So I have another low budget solution.

Stock GT250 rims are: 1.6x18 front & 1.85x18 rear
Want to upgrade to: 1.85x18 front & 2.15x18 rear
With Avon RoadRider tires: 90/90-18 front & 110/80-18 rear

The rear is easy.
Have a spare T500 rear wheel with some broken spokes. Will use this wheel with a NOS spoke set.

The front turned out pretty straightforward.
The GS450GA front wheel has the same hub + spokes, and a 1.85x18 rim. Got a used front wheel & will use a NOS spoke set.

Now for the questions.
He wants to black powdercoat the rims, front hub & rear drum.
Any issues?
Do people powdercoat the front hub & rear drum? Or do they use paint?

[buzzer]

I have a bit of experience on this... I think the hubs are OK to be powder coated, so long as they are prepared correctly in the first place.

With the rims, if they are chrome, that may pose a problem... a few years ago my mate powder coated the chrome wire wheels on an MGB. They were a bit rusty, and he didn't want to go to the expense of having them rebuilt. So he had them chemically cleaned and powder coated silver. after a few months the powder coat came off in BIG chunks, starting around the spokes. So he had then chemically stripped again to remove the powder coating, grit blasted, and coated again. Same thing, it didn't last.

I think the only way to successfully powder coat chrome is to have it removed by a chroming company (not sure how they do it, but i think its the reverse of putting it on! and then powder coat the resulting bare metal.

I will be interested to hear what others think on this.

[jabcb]

This is my first project, so I have lots of questions & not many answers.
But this post has a pic of nicely powdercoated rims.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10926&p=148935&hilit=gt550#p148935

[Alan H]

Or you could get some GS wheels and powder coat them, like this;

[jabcb]

Or you could get some GS wheels and powder coat them, like this;

If there was more $$$ in the budget for this build, we probably would have gotten black anodized Sun Rims from Buchanan’s & maybe even SS spokes from them.

[garry55]

for my TS185 project, I had the standard wheels blasted and then powder-coated satin black - hubs, rims and spokes. I think they look cool.