Need help deciding between silver polished vs silver anodized wheels

[Brian Choy]

I'm ordering a set of Velocity Quill wheels for my new Homer build and am having difficulty deciding between silver polished or silver anodized. I prefer the look of the silver polished but worry about the additional maintenance and upkeep that they'll require in terms of cleaning. My wheels will be build with a silver polished SON dynamo front hub + silver polished MI5 rear hub, but I've already accepted my fate with those polished parts given that they're the only silver option available.

These wheels will see a variety of riding from daily mixed-weather commutes in NYC to the rare weekend gravel ride. 

I'd appreciate it if anyone could share some insight/experience with silver polished or silver anodized wheels!

Thanks!

[Will Boericke]

I have polished rims that I don't care about on my commuter and they definitely get dirty and stay dirty quickly.  I'd personally go for anodized if you care how they look.

Will

[Isaak Oliansky]

I've got the non-polished silver quills laced to polished silver dura ace 7700 hubs (36h!!!) on my ritchey breakaway cross. I personally like a clash of black/silver/polished/anodized on my bike, but even if I didn't, the profile of these rims is very attractive and mates well with whatever else you might put on your rig. 

[Ant Warland]

I've just had the same dilemma on some Cliffhangers. Currently have polished on my Appaloosa and they look great but decided on silver anodized because they also look great and were £70 cheaper for the pair (money is a bit tighter now) and will probably need to be replaced due to wear in not that many years.

[Michael]

First, I should state I am not an expert on the long term use of anodized vs polished but I went through this decision last year and I can provide my current thoughts. I had the exact same wheels built up (Quills, Son, MI5) and when I asked the question, it seemed like more people, including a gentleman at Riv, suggested anodized mostly for cleaning purposes. However, I really liked the idea of making this a mostly polished build (brakes, paul brake levers, son headlight, & tail light) and just kept thinking the polished hubs with polished rims would look amazing. I also noticed on my homer that has a mix of anodized and polished parts, that when the polished components get dirty and loses its shine, it now just looks more like the anodized parts. But hitting it with simichrome polish would bring back that amazing polish and they would look far better than the anodized again, at least to me. So I figured there wasn't much to lose by going with polished, if I keep them clean they will look amazing but if I don't they will just resemble anodized components anyway. Also, I thought you could make the argument that polished could be considered the ultimate in durability because its basically raw metal, no coatings to wear down or chip and can always be re-polished if needed. Additionally, this was basically my "dream" build and told myself I would be ok with a little extra work to keep it beautiful so I pulled the trigger on polished. I've put about 600 miles on the bike so far and definitely happy with my decision, my bike is a useful piece of art to me. As stated, they will get dusty and lose some shine but a routinely quick wipe with a clean cloth is all it takes. In fact, I spoke to Rich who builds the wheels and he suggested wiping them after each ride to avoid ever needing to polish. I admit, I don't do this after every ride. So far I have given my bike 2 thorough cleanings and I polish the rims, hubs, headlight,  & brake levers with simichrome each time and its very satisfying bringing back the shine. So far, I have yet to think they look bad even when dirty but look amazing when clean, so we decided to go with polished again on my wifes Platy Riv is currently building. I have heard that salt spread on roads in the winter can negatively interact with the aluminum, so if I were riding in this routinely I might consider anodized or a 2nd wheel set, but besides that I'm polished all day :D

Hope this helps

[Teague Scott]

I debated this for a few weeks before nabbing some polished cliffhangers. At the time my options were polished or anodized w/ non-machined sidewalls. I'm not too concerned about the rims getting dirty - a super shiny bike draws too much attention for my liking... NMSW rims won't look awesome either once those brake pads hit the sidewalls and start wearing through the ano.

This is from Velocity's site and sealed the deal for me re. ano+nmsw/ano+msw/polished. +1 for polished:

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

Just to throw in another idea (prob not what you were looking for)…do you know Velocity has an anodizer that does “deep custom” work? Pretty much any color and pattern you can imagine, he can do. I often ride the Grand Rapids ride (Grand Rapids is Velocity HQ) and see tons of colorful rims at the ride. Really fun way to personalize a bike. But silver is good, too!

Leah