Welded is way stronger, but once it fails, it fails suddenly and catastrophically, often with a risk of injury. Pinned joints are more likely to fail, but they tend to fail in a slightly more gradual way, where the rim begins to separate at the joint, which creates a hop in the wheel, so then you look at it, and say "oh, SNAP! I need a new rim!" This chain of events will most often lack outright catastrophic failure while riding....
I tend to prefer the welded rims; i've yet to have a problem, knock on wood.
Re: the chrome finish: it looks great.... some of their 20" rims come in that finish. Every 590 cr18 i've seen is polished "chrome" finish. Seems like they do a run of chrome-look rhyno lites on occasion, so buy'm quick if you see them.... they always seem to sell out. I got the mtx33s purely by luck (on bikewagon); they look really hott, b/c the lack of rim surface really has the whole thing gleaming....
I tend to prefer the welded rims; i've yet to have a problem, knock on wood.
Re: the chrome finish: it looks great.... some of their 20" rims come in that finish. Every 590 cr18 i've seen is polished "chrome" finish. Seems like they do a run of chrome-look rhyno lites on occasion, so buy'm quick if you see them.... they always seem to sell out. I got the mtx33s purely by luck (on bikewagon); they look really hott, b/c the lack of rim surface really has the whole thing gleaming....
