Rim Life

[MrRidley]

Out with local club today and one of the guy's happens to look at my rear wheel, say's the rims worn a good bit, was a bit shocked at this seen as i've only had it on for about 3 month's, it's a Mavic Open Sport rim, surely they must last longer than this.

 

[accountantpete]

They usually do and I can't believe that the rim has worn in that time.

Pop the edge of a ruler across the braking surface and see if you can see a gap between the rim and the ruler.

 

[andyhunter]

thats mad, i had a worn front mavic ksyrium es wheel that i bought n 2007 n replaced the front rim as i mostly use the front the most, in 2010 before it was sold in 2011...is your brakes rubbing on the rim or is there stones and grit in the brake pads thats scoring the rims :S

 

[MrRidley]

They usually do and I can't believe that the rim has worn in that time.

Pop the edge of a ruler across the braking surface and see if you can see a gap between the rim and the ruler.

Just done as above, and you can see daylight between rim and ruler, also just calculated how many miles on that rim, just over 1800 miles since i put it on, pretty poor lifespan, the front is not so bad, at least the ruler and rim are flush.

 

[zacklaws]

Just wore both my wheels out to bottom of depth gauge and I'm gutted as I've only done just under 9000 miles on them, so now I have to fork out for a new set.

 

[008]

I just changed a pretty worn Mavic Open Sport after 2 years and just short of 7,000 miles. It would've lasted a little longer had I not hit a big pothole which put a kink in the rim.

 

[GrasB]

The rim should have a black grove across the braking surface, if that has gone you need to replace the rim

http://www.mavic.com/en/product/rims/road-triathlon/rims/Open-Sport

 

[MrRidley]

The rim should have a black grove across the braking surface, if that has gone you need to replace the rim

http://www.mavic.com...rims/Open-Sport

Aye, the groove is pretty much gone, but why such short life ? is it too much braking or are they just crap rims ?

 

[GrasB]

Oddly hard braking won't take too much out of the rim life, long periods of high speed feathering on descents however will quickly eat away at the rim. If you're using pads which are abrasive this will make matters worse.

 

[gavintc]

And it pays to keep the rims clean. The black muck that builds up acts a grinding paste.

 

[GrasB]

Of course this is why I decided to have disc brakes on my commuter bike £35 for disc is a lot less than shelling out for half decent wheels every 18 months (15000 miles or so)

 

[008]

I wouldn't say they were crap rims. Most of my mileage was done commuting into central london so constantly on the brakes in traffic. My last set of rims, stock Alex R500's, wore out quicker. I did clean them regularly, with white spirit, especially after a wet ride. Strange that your rim only lasted 1800 miles yet your front one doesn't seem to have worn at all... as others have already said, my guess would be grit and debris stuck in the brake pads... unless you got one from the batch that was made from cheese

 

[accountantpete]

The main culprit is little bits of metal from the road that get embedded in the brake pad. This causes the rim to wear away so that you get even more bits of metal in the pads - etc etc.

You really need to keep your ears open for metallic sounds when braking and check the pads a bit more often.

 

[totallyfixed]

Grit sticks to your rims on grotty days, apply brakes and the grit shaves off tiny bits of your aluminium rim which in turn become embedded in the brake block. Shine a light on the brake block and you will see metallic bits, pick them out with a sharp point, job done.
Funnily enough I ordered new wheels tonight because my rear rim is worn out, fairly cheap rims, done 21000 miles on them which I consider fairly poor,

 

[HLaB]

1800 miles per rim where have you been riding your bike jimbhoy? Or have you got something in your pads?

I managed to get just under 6000 road miles (in all conditions) out of my Mavic's (Aksiums) before they were retired to the turbo.

Even my less well maintained hybrid got over 6000 miles before the stock Alex burst.