I thought I wanted to chrome the stock wheels but I'm thinking of powdercoating the centers/spokes in gloss black and then the outer rim would be polished. I can't find a pic if someone else has done this. I can't decide if I'd like the look.
I've always liked polished aluminum but there's no way I'll polish the entire wheel...too much upkeep. Chrome looks good but it's almost "too" shiny if you know what I mean. Without pics, what do you think of the idea?

Probably be awesome-go for it!

Sounds like you solve two problems with one opperation. You get your custom look and you confine your polishing maintenance to the easy to reach areas. Go for it. I think it would look cool. If you don't like, you could go to all black rims after a while.

Rook

I have an 07 black zx14 and I coated the inside of the wheels and polished the lips. Looks good and Autosol once a month keeps it shining. Do it. Results are great.Can't seem to post the picture. Send me your mail address to dynamnic@telkomsa.net and I wil mail you some pics. Cheers.

Ooops. Mail address dynamic@telkomsa.net

Thanks. I'll e-mail you. Thanks for your time.

* Last updated by: bgordon on 4/22/2009 @ 8:52 AM *

Thanks Bud. I didn't know you tried this in the early days.
With all respect, they don't look a whole lot better than stock to me. Did they look better in person/have a mirror finish or ? I've got a pic of your bike with the chrome wheels and I have to say it looks better chrome.
Based on your pics I may just go with chrome. I've always liked polished aluminum and I also have doubts about the chrome long term durability (chipping during tire changes). The black/polished look seemed like a good compromise. I did my GS1000 wheels like that and they came out nice, though the wheels ARE different.

* Last updated by: KAK on 4/22/2009 @ 6:01 PM *

Bud,very very tasty.The only thing that could make them look better would be if they were on my bike

KAK, honestly I like the chrome better. But the chrome wheels were $600.00, polished.....free. Yes they did look better in person, but the chromed looked great. But if your like me...once you chrome the wheels, your just starting. Then everything else looks dull. I ended up chroming countless parts.

I'm glad you were able to put pictures up. I was thinking about going chrome but for bang for the buck I liked the polished look better.

I ended up polishing the outer rim and also the sides of each spoke. The rest of the center is gloss black powdercoat. Came out nice. I'd show the pics but I lost all my pics when our computer had a problem. That's part of why I haven't been around lately. I even had all my pics copied to an external hard drive and lost those too. All my bike pics and vacation trips over the years, etc. Took me a few days to get over it. Sometimes I hate these f'in computers.

* Last updated by: KAK on 10/24/2011 @ 12:23 AM *

damn-

that's scary. Amazing how uptight I am if anything goes wrong with my computer. A few years ago, I had no use for one at all. Now it is some sort of lifeline-----to what, IDK.