Open Pro rims - are ceramic worth the extra money?

tgotb

My Winter/commuting wheels are getting quite worn (after 6000-8000 miles) and it's only a matter of time before I have to replace the rims. Currently on bog-standard Open Pros, and have been very happy with them, but I'm wondering whether the ceramic ones will last better. Anyone used them?

They're around twice the price, can I expect them to last twice as long?

Supplementary question: Any problem with reusing the spokes? I'm expecting to replace the nipples, but would be nice not to have to shell out for new spokes aswell...

jonginge

ITB to thread!

UndercoverElephant

As long as they aren't damaged, and as long as the new rim is roughly the same diameter* as the old one, you can re-use the spokes and nipples without any problems. They generally can be used for numerous rims with no problems.

As for ceramic surfaces, never used them. I have heard that the alloy Mavic rims seem to wear quite quickly these days, though.

*Effective Rim diameter, or ERD.

crankycrank

I switched to ceramic Open Pros from using the hard anodised OP's and after about 4k miles of use they are showing very little wear on the sidewalls. Stop only slightly better in the wet with the Koolstop Ceramic green pads than my old OP's with the Koolstop Salmon pads and both are fairly equal in the dry. I think the main advantage of ceramics is less sidewall wear especially in the wet. You can still use standard pads with these and will give you better stopping power than plain alu rims but the pads do wear out faster and don't stop quite as well as ceramic specific pads. You can re-use your old spokes as the ERD is the same. I can't answer whether they'll last twice as long as the standard OP's but you can get quite a bit more life out of the standards by just switching to the Koolstop Salmon pads.