Excessive rim wear?

Resound said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than eleven
months and despite the best of intentions have probably only averaged about
150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of life should I expect
out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all weather types)? I did notice
that the old pads seemed to have bits of aluminium embeddded in them.

Wet weather kills rims. There's not much you can do about it, except
not use your brakes(!). I've had one front rim blow up on
me after trying to milk another week out of it, luckily I wasn't
going very fast at the time! If the surface is noticably concave,
get new rims. The consequences of a front wheel detonation
at speed would be .. well, let's say you'd prefer not to find out 🙂

I get around a year out of normal AL rims, which is anything from
12,000-20,000km, depending on how often I go down hills in the wet.
There's a theory that 1 big descent (Hotham, for
example) in the wet can take 0.1mm out of a rim.

Bleve said:

Resound said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than eleven
months and despite the best of intentions have probably only averaged about
150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of life should I expect
out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all weather types)? I did notice
that the old pads seemed to have bits of aluminium embeddded in them.

Wet weather kills rims. There's not much you can do about it, except
not use your brakes(!). I've had one front rim blow up on
me after trying to milk another week out of it, luckily I wasn't
going very fast at the time! If the surface is noticably concave,
get new rims. The consequences of a front wheel detonation
at speed would be .. well, let's say you'd prefer not to find out 🙂

I get around a year out of normal AL rims, which is anything from
12,000-20,000km, depending on how often I go down hills in the wet.
There's a theory that 1 big descent (Hotham, for
example) in the wet can take 0.1mm out of a rim.

do you clean the rims&pads regularly to remove grit'n'stuff?

kim

Resound said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than eleven
months and despite the best of intentions have probably only averaged about
150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of life should I expect
out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all weather types)? I did notice
that the old pads seemed to have bits of aluminium embeddded in them.

I've had a similar problem with my alx-400 wheels... waiting for the
indicator groove in the rin to completely go.... haven't had the bike
for that long either .. I hope my replacements last longer

Get the Koolstop salmon brake pads (you can get them as inserts to fit both
road and MTB brakes). They don't gouge bits of metal out of the braking
surface as most pads do. I've got rims that have more than 30000km on them
(Mavic MA2) and are still fine.

I don't know about your rims but the MA2 are 1.5mm thick in the braking area
when new. I replace them when my calipers show a reduction in width across
the rim of 2mm, indicating that the thickness is down to 0.5mm. My 30000km
rims still have a way to go to get to this point.

Nick

"Resound" <[email protected]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than eleven
months and despite the best of intentions have probably only averaged about
150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of life should I
expect out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all weather types)? I
did notice that the old pads seemed to have bits of aluminium embeddded in
them.

Resound said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than eleven
months and despite the best of intentions have probably only averaged about
150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of life should I expect
out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all weather types)? I did notice
that the old pads seemed to have bits of aluminium embeddded in them.

Greetings,
The rear rim on my cheapo Shogun Metro wore out the same way, it
started folding out under the tyre pressure. Mine lasted about three
years, or c. 15,000 kms. The rim was replaced by Australian made
Velocity rim, which is still going strong c. 40,000 km later.
Regards,
Ray.

"Ray Peace" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Resound said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than
eleven months and despite the best of intentions have probably only
averaged about 150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of
life should I expect out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all
weather types)? I did notice that the old pads seemed to have bits of
aluminium embeddded in them.

Greetings,
The rear rim on my cheapo Shogun Metro wore out the same way, it started
folding out under the tyre pressure. Mine lasted about three years, or c.
15,000 kms. The rim was replaced by Australian made Velocity rim, which is
still going strong c. 40,000 km later.
Regards,
Ray.

Right, so most people are quoting about 15,000km upwards. I've done about
7,000. I think I might take it back while it's still under warranty and ask
them about rim life.

Resound said:

"Ray Peace" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Resound said:

I replaced the front pads on the OCR3 yesterday and realised that the
braking surfaces are distinctly concave. I've had the bike less than
eleven months and despite the best of intentions have probably only
averaged about 150km/week on it due to some slow periods. What sort of
life should I expect out of an aluminium rim used for commuting (all
weather types)? I did notice that the old pads seemed to have bits of
aluminium embeddded in them.

Greetings,
The rear rim on my cheapo Shogun Metro wore out the same way, it started
folding out under the tyre pressure. Mine lasted about three years, or c.
15,000 kms. The rim was replaced by Australian made Velocity rim, which is
still going strong c. 40,000 km later.
Regards,
Ray.

Right, so most people are quoting about 15,000km upwards. I've done about
7,000. I think I might take it back while it's still under warranty and ask
them about rim life.

It does depend on how you ride it too though. If you're scared of
rain and never go down big hills in the wet, rims will last a
very long time. If you go barreling down the 1:20 5 times a week in
winter, 7,000km would seem a lot of k's for a rim to last.