marks and grooves on rims?

AndyD2574

Got a question as I dont know whether I am being just a bit nerdy and obsessed with keeping my new bike clean???

I have come from mountain biking so have ran disks for the last 10 years so went out on my shiny new road bike at the weekend (in the rain) and it obviously picked up road grime and dirt...........cleaned it and the rims are really marked................as I am not used to what happens with pads and rims is it normal?

Is it just teh pad picking up dirt and rubbing it into the rim............or have I alreay ruined my rims?

Whats the best way to get them looking new again?

Wappygixer

As its the braking surface is will always dull down.
Some pads are better than others in that they wont wear your rims as much as some of the abrasive compounds.
Coolstop and Swissstop are some of the better ones, shimano are good but very abrasive.
The other thing to look out for is grit and metal stuck in your pads, clean them and pick these bits out.

AndyD2574

I have Campag Centaur with the standard pads.

Whats the best option that will give me good braking but not too abrasive?

redddraggon

Campag pads are pretty good in my experience

Wappygixer

I use Centaur brakes too and have found them very good and probably much better than my cyclocross brakes.
What wheel rims have you got?
It may be that its down to pretty soft or budget rims?

AndyD2574

I run Fulcrum 3's

keef66

You sure they weren't like that from the start? My Shimano RS10's came with braking surfaces that were machined to be slightly rough, I assumed to assist in braking. Prior to that I'd only had an mtb with v brakes, but those rims had a smooth braking surface (when new anyway)

mercsport

Funnily enough this post reminds me that I have an expensive set of the current Shamal wheels, Record groupset and obviously the pads are Campag. It's my summer bike and it's embarrassingly noisy when I brake and the sidewalls are rutted and dull. From new, it's been thus.

My winter bike (upon which I was sideswiped by a car last week and nearly written off), has a set of relatively old Mavic Open Sup wheels, Records again and they run silently when the anchors go on. Always have done. It mystifies me as it ought to be the other way round.

Awhile ago I scrupulously inspected the Shamals and swiss-filed down a few high spots that had been thrown up by the end of a rut. Also I brought out my stereo microscope and tweezered, scalpeled and picked out all the metallic detritus that the pads had picked up- and under a microscope or a low magnifier- that's a lot of stuff. The result was that it became a wee bit quieter, but not by much. It's back to the same old noisy ways as before now. A little disheartening I have to say (particularly as some retailers flog'em at nearly nine hundred quid now!) :?

AndyD2574

keef66 wrote:

You sure they weren't like that from the start? My Shimano RS10's came with braking surfaces that were machined to be slightly rough, I assumed to assist in braking. Prior to that I'd only had an mtb with v brakes, but those rims had a smooth braking surface (when new anyway)

Cleaned them today and the braking surface is pre-grooved so its just the muck getting into the grooves........phew!

Made sure there were no bits in the pads that could mark the rims too.

Mike67

mercsport wrote:

It's my summer bike and it's embarrassingly noisy when I brake and the sidewalls are rutted and dull. From new, it's been thus.?

I always wonder what the lifespan of the pads is from a 'freshness' perspective.

Coming from a Chemistry background I know that rubber loses it's natural elasticity with age and man made alternatives lose their flexibility as the plasticisers etc are leached out of them.

These losses would be exacerbated by heat/solvents/detergents etc.

The result would be a harder more brittle pad which may explain the excessive noise/extra abrasiveness.

I recently took some old (noisy) Shimano pads out, and although not worn down to the marks, they were much harder and less flexible than the new ones (same model) I put in.
The new ones were silent!

GavH

I love the little 'wedge' on the end of Koolstops - really does scrub a lot of gunk off the rims in the wet.

mercsport

Mike67 wrote:

mercsport wrote:

It's my summer bike and it's embarrassingly noisy when I brake and the sidewalls are rutted and dull. From new, it's been thus.?

I always wonder what the lifespan of the pads is from a 'freshness' perspective.

Coming from a Chemistry background I know that rubber loses it's natural elasticity with age and man made alternatives lose their flexibility as the plasticisers etc are leached out of them.

These losses would be exacerbated by heat/solvents/detergents etc.

The result would be a harder more brittle pad which may explain the excessive noise/extra abrasiveness.

I recently took some old (noisy) Shimano pads out, and although not worn down to the marks, they were much harder and less flexible than the new ones (same model) I put in.
The new ones were silent!

That's an interesting idea I never considered.

I wonder though, in my case, how it is that two sets of wheels react so differently to what, on the face of it are identical stoppers? Are you suggesting that one set is working well, and the other not, because of age, wear, and an altered chemical composition thereby?

To reiterate : my posh wheels and new blocks were noisy virtually from the off. The winter wheels ( demoted from summer wheels ) were always pretty quiet. So far as I can tell your suggestion is that the newer blocks are more flexible and ought to be quiet. The opposite is the actuality.

mercsport

GavH wrote:

I love the little 'wedge' on the end of Koolstops - really does scrub a lot of gunk off the rims in the wet.

Thanks for the heads'up on the Koolstops.

An interesting website. Might give them a go.

http://www.koolstop.com/brakes/index.php