Rim Wear

Our first of many "tech" posts. Now I have a place to showcase and talk about my vast collection of broken bike parts. I promise it wont all about broken bike parts! You will get a look around the shop and hear some of my thoughts and ideas about bicycle repair and maintenance. Trust me it will be fun!
Alright, this first post is going to show you what rim wear looks like, some causes, and how to prolong your rim life. This wheel below failed due to the "brake track" being so thin, that when this rider hit a hole, that the rim failed at the brake track, causing the rim to look like he ran over a mine. Not to mention a walk back to the car in cycling shoes. We all know how much fun that is!



There is a lot of friction between the brake pad and rim when slowing you down. While riding your rims pick up dust and small particles of dirt. All the tiny dust and dirt act like sand paper while the brakes are applied. Slowly causing wear on the brake track of your rim. When it's wet out, this process is accelerated. Another cause of rim wear, is pieces of debris embedded in your brake pads. This can be metal, small rocks, dirt etc.

Above a picture of a brake pad with pieces of metal in embedded in it. A very slow and painful way for your rim to go. Once a month you can remove your wheels and resurface you pads with a file. Also not a bad idea to replace pads once a year or as needed.

What you DON'T want you rim to look like! If you hold a flat edge up to the side of your rim, you do not wan to see any light or a large gap "like pictured above" between the edge of your ruler and rim. Your ruler or flat edge should lay flat.

OK now how do we prevent this from happening. Well, you really can't. Eventually your rim will wear out. That's part of the deal when you using brakes. Which I highly recommend you keep doing. What you can do is pro long the life of you rim and by knowing what to look for your rim wont look like you ran over a mine, and you wont have to walk home. It can wear out in a few thousand miles, or many 10's of thousands of happy miles later. So here is what I recommend you you do.

The same time that you lube your chain....once a week right? OK, good! After you are done lubing your chain take some rubbing alcohol apply to a rag and wipe the brake track of your rims. It's that easy. Doing this will help prevent dirt build up on rims, improve braking, and also help in rim life. Your rims and wheels will Thank you.





Enjoy your ride!

Teffki