Best MA Rim???

Hi,

I have the choice of a couple of different MA rims and wanted to know which ones are best.

I ride a single speed bike and they are for a mixture of touring and everyday riding. I am 85KG and can be rather hard on my bikes. Here is the list, so please can anyone help with what will be best?

MA2 Green and Red Label
MA40
MA2 Green and Yellow Label

All are 36 hole.

Any help you can give me would be grateful.

I think the MA40 was better. The MA2 was an OK rim for everyday riding but not your Sunday best. I always found tyres were a right b$gger to get on and off with MA2 rims.

I second MA40 over MA2. Supposedly stronger due to the hard anodizing.

Mark.

I agree with both the above. Certainly the MA40s were always better than the MA40s.

I'm a bit perplexed about the green / red MA2 label, though; are you sure it's not an E2? If so, I think that the E2 argents, which were silver anodised and (importantly) had double eyelets, were possibly better than even the MA40s. The were less "boxy" and built very well. It may be that the early MA2s had green / red labels and I've just forgotten about them, mind you.

Anyway, the MA40s should have double eyelets - the others don't, necessarily - and that's a critical point.

I'll be the dissenter.

The MA40 and MA2 rims both use the same extrusion. They're dimensionally identical. The only difference is that the MA40 has a hard anodized CD ("couche dure", meaning "hard layer") finish. Hard anodizing is expensive, so the MA40 was more expensive than the MA2.

The CD finish doesn't make the rim measurably stronger: it's too thin to have any structural effect. It impedes corrosion on the rim face, but it's more slippery than the bare metal, and braking is less effective until the finish wears away from the braking surfaces. When it does, it leaves an ugly worn surface.

One theoretical problem with the CD finish is that it's less flexible than the base metal to which it's attached. As the rim flexes, the hard surface forms microscopic cracks, which can propagate into the rim over time. I don't know if this is a common problem, but I have cracked MA40s, and I've never cracked an MA2.

The red and green label MA2 is older than the yellow and green model. My impression is that the older models had slightly better quality control. There were slight variations in finish over the years.

I haven't seen an MA2 with single eyelets: there was an MA model that used the same extrusion again, but with single eyelets. It wasn't bad for a front wheel, but I wouldn't use one at the rear.

Frankly any of them will function as well as the other. The MA40 has the dark anodizing which was more fashionable in the late 80's but they all build up the same and are really just as strong as each other. Braking on the MA2 should also be better since there is no slippery smooth coating to wear off first!

NOS MA40's go for crazy money now considering how much they were in the day...

I have seen single eyelet MA2s - the originals were a double eyelet silver MA40 but IIRC they went single even before the change to the "newer" label (MA40 likewise went purple/yellow?). Precursors to these were E2 and G40 respectively - again a shared extrusion, from the days of 27".

MA2s for me, braking is immense (on a par with open pros for sure) and they look the business pretty much throughout whereas has been pointed out the MA40 anodising will wear off in dribs & drabs and looks kinda scruffy until all of it is gone.