Are my rims worn?

roubaixtom

Hi,

I have a 2006 S-works roubaix as a winter bike with rival fusee wheels. I noticed today when changing a tyre that the braking surface is con caved on both wheels, does this mean they are worn?


Cheers

sigorman85

I would get a professional opinion from your bike shop as its not worth the risk .... Do a search on the net for wheel collapsing it' looks prety messy

keezx

If you can see about 0,5 mm "light" it is time to look for replacement.
In the maintime you can testy the rim by inflating 2 bar or 25 PSI more than normal.
If the rim does not fail it's fit for purpose.

BTW, it will be predictable what the opinion of a bike shop is.....

shmooster

There may be a wear indicator on the wheels that will tell you if they're OK or not. It's normally a very small hole that if it's gone means they're worn. Not sure if these wheels ever had one though. Alternatively you can use a vernier calliper or micrometer to measure the width (will need to use something of known width like part of a spoke to get into the concave part). 1mm is just about OK, anything less and they're done for.

Mate had a rear wheel go during a club ride a couple of weeks ago, luckily not going fast but it was a long walk home.

Bobbinogs

Yepp, visibly concave is a warning sign that they need to be checked. I bought a relatively cheap pair of calipers off the web some time ago specifically for the purpose (Jewellers spring measuring calipers which have a spring mech and looping jaws that are really good for rim measurement). The general guidance is "Caution below 1 mm, dangerous below 0.7".

I have just had to bin my winter wheels after 2 seasons because they were down to 0.8. I really wanted to get another month out of them (not least because I only replaced all the ball bearings last month) but accepted that 0.8 was as far as I wanted to go!