Poor braking, new wheels?

Turnbull2000

Hi,

When Trek had my Race X Lite rear wheel in last summer for a repair, they commented that it may need replaced this year due to rim wear. Admittedly, the braking performance on my 3 yr old wheels do seem be getting quite poor on both front and rear (especially in the wet), despite now using the soft compound Salmon Pad brake pads. Even the top part of the Bontrager logo on the wheels has worn away!

Are there any tips for improving performance and getting another year or so out of the wheels, or should I start looking for a replacement? I've seen some Aeolus 5.0 clinchers for under 1K and have been tempted, but it's a sh*t load of money and need to think it through.

balthazar

Braking shouldn't degrade as rims wear. Rim material is the same all the way through. Clean your rims thoroughly, with a scotchbrite pad or similar to remove any bits of gunge, check that the pads are meeting the rim squarely (as they wear, they approach the rim at a different point in their travel arc due to cosine error), and your braking should be as effective as it ever was.

Rims are worn out when their sidewalls are as thin as 0.6–0.7 mm. This can be measured with a micrometer, or a vernier gauge with appropriate spacers to clear the rim edge, or your rims may have wear markers as part of their design.

k-dog

My Trek has wear markers built into the rims - I think mine are Race Lite's tbough - just little dimples on each side of the rim - when you get to where the rim has worn down to where the dimples are almost gone then they're getting thin.

Strangely my front wheel had one side more worn than the other when I was cleaning it recently - just switched the QR around and I'll see what happens.

If your back is worn then I would have a good look at the front - which should be more worn - and if it's not then you need to think about your braking technique.