Powder coat or Anodizing hubs

[CRF250AWP]

I don't think anyone in the CRF250R/X forum has their hubs powder coated or anodized, so I figured I'd ask here.

If you have either done, do you have to pull out your wheel bearings?

Also, if I find someone to do it locally, how long does it usually take?

I just ordered a set of Red anodized rims, and I wanted to have my hubs powder coated or anodized black. Any suggestions on which? And what about the spoke holes...what do you do about that?

[too much dust]

i would stick to anodizing the hub.i think i have seen it done on factory riders hubs

[hondarider_59]

yeah u wanna anodize them and when they do it they plug up the spoke holes so nothing gets in there

[Terry_Blake]

We have anodized several hubs black. Because of the material used in the hub they do not take a good anodize.

I just red powder coated my front and rear hubs (new) for my 250R. They are awesome. If you powder coat, take the bearings out and sand down the casting marks and other imperfections.

On a stock hub I think powder coat is the way to go. I don't think you will ever get a good anodize.

TB

[Kwota]

I've got stock 03 hubs annodized black to go with some red 17 inch motard rims. the hubs look great, but they had to be lathed a little to get rid of the rough surface that the casting makes to make a smoother surface that looks much cleaner and thus makes the annodization look better. just pop out the bearings.. here's a pic. good luck

[K-fab]

Yes, you must remove ALL bearings from your hubs. The chemicals used for anodizing will destroy the steel. The main chemical used (as I recall) is usually a sulfuric acid based bath that's applied with an electrical current - actually forms Aluminum Oxide (ceramic) coating. Harder than snot. For general color anodizing, the process penetrates the aluminum 1/3 of the thickness of the anodizing - we're talking microns... Hard anodizing is closer to 1/2 thickness penetration.

Anodizing cast aluminum usually leads to crappy results. The metal (especially on the surface) is more porous than billet and it leads to bubble looking spots and such. As posted a couple above, they had to remove the porous surface.

Powder coating is tough stuff, but it has it's little idiosyncrasies too. Once again, all bearings and spacers need to be removed.

Powder coating is an epoxy paint that's sprayed on dry (hence, the powder) and held to the part with an electrical charge. Once the part is coated in the powder, it's run through an oven and basically melted on the part. As far as painting goes, it's tough stuff.

The downside to powder coating is that you will have to remove it from all the spoke holes. If you don't, it will eventually squish out from under them and let the spokes come loose. You also will have to remove it from the bearing areas too.

If you go with powder coating, find an old set of bearings or see if you can get someone to turn down a couple aluminum pucks that fit where the bearings go. This will also keep the paint out of the center part of the hub. It won't hurt anything there, but there's no reason to have it in there either.

Anodizing is usually more expensive than powder coating. Most anodizers have a minimum pricing and it's usually not cost effective.

Anodizing will show the underlying surface - so if you have a polished hub, the color will be more mirror like "have depth", if you will. If it's machined, then the surface will show the machine marks. Bead blasted surface will yield a dull or matte finish.

Powder coat will look like paint - mind you, there are some really trick powders out there. It's not uncommon to do a silver base coat with a translucent top coat or veined looks or flats, or glosses... Pretty much what ever sort of paint look you want, a good powder coater should be able to produce.

Either process should leave you with good results if you take the time and get the part prepped accordingly.

[Slider67g]

If you prep Powder Coating correctly then it will not come off under the spokes, when I started Powder coating 10 years ago (as a job) I powder coated my rims and hubs along with everything I could, still today I have those rims on one of my race bikes(Flattrack rotax 600) and the spokes are still tight. Even today we do not plug the holes for spokes but before the oven we blow the inner side off just a bit. NEVER A PROBLEM..

[Rossi]

kowta - gorgeous bike

[Huggybear]

I just had my rims annod. gold and the hubs and misc. parts powder coated with a 2 stage gold metallic. Didn't prep a thing on stock hubs except removal of the bearings, cut the mold marks off the kickstarter and break levers. Everything came out great.

After coating, cleaned out all the mounting holes (subframe and levers) and Dremel wire brushed coating off of the sprocket teeth and spoke holes. Some powder coating places will plug off the spoke holes, I do not recommend, leaves too much powder build up in the nipple seats.

The 2 stage powder is very thick! Up to 1/8" in some places! Very cool stuff though!

So far no issues or loose anything. Hardest part was relacing the wheels. If you've got the time I highly recommend adding a little bling!