Rim Brakes

[Alberto Balsam]

The other day I went out for a longish ride on the road bike, most of which was climbing, so I didn't use the brakes much. However, once I got to the inevitable big descent I was heavy on the brakes and the back one sounded awful.
When I got home and cleaned the bike I noticed that the rims looked terrible (never noticed it before). They seemed to be scored (maybe some grit got in??) and very discoloured. Even though the scoring doesn't feel bad to the fingers, I got to wondering;is this normal??
I'm more used to Hyd discs on my hybrid, which in comparison show little sign of use so maybe I'm just comparing it to that...
What do you think?

 

[Smokin Joe]

Brake blocks will wear the rims down. That's a price you have to pay, I'm afraid.

 

[Brandane]

You can minimise said wear though, by using brake blocks that are kinder to your rims. Koolstop are my blocks of choice.

 

[Tim Hall]

Pick the grit out of the blocks.

 

[raleighnut]

^^^^^^+1 clean the brake blocks of contaminants (grit etc.)

 

[Gatters]

Pick the grit out of the blocks.

^^^^^^+1 clean the brake blocks of contaminants (grit etc.)

what they said, take the blocks off and look for metal fragments and grit and clean out any water disperseing grooves

 

[fossyant]

Get new pads, they aren't expensive

 

[Alberto Balsam]

Cheers guys, I'll take them out and have a look at them then. It never occurred to me to even think of keeping an eye on this kind of thing..

 

[jowwy]

Buy a road bike with disc brakes like your hybrid.......then forget about rim wear and blocks

 

[ozboz]

I wore the front rim out on my MTB, bit of a nuisance as it split when out on the track , longish walk home , but ar least is wasnt raining !!