Originally Posted by jim thompson
..well to our supprise the rear rim had cracked causing a big bulge on the surface of the rim where the pad touches when brake is applied....the tire bead remained in place....now heres my question...can anyone recomment a high quality rim that will last and not wear out......
As for which rim to use as a replacement, there are a very limited number of 26" rims drilled for 40h hubs. On the bright side, most of these will do quite nicely and, at this point I'm somewhat inclined to recommend you replace both rims.
Sun RhynoLite: The name is misleading; they're quite robust and a great value. If you run widish tires this is the correct rim to replace your 217's with.
http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=RM8460
Salsa's Gordo: Also a nice, robust rim - a bit heavier than the RhynoLite.
http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=RM8615
Velocity Deep-V: Black only. A great rim if you run nothing larger than a 700x28. Beyond that, it's a bit narrow at 24mm (outside width) and same weight as RhynoLite.
http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&SKU=RM4421
If you opt to go with new 36h hubs, then the world becomes your oyster with regard to rim choices. MAVIC plus the full range of Velocity & Sun rims become players. However, if your hubs are holding up and not giving you any trouble then I wouldn't bother with the expense of replacing them. If you have someone rebuild your wheels you might just have them service the hubs just to help extend their utility.
In answer to the second part of your question, no, so long as you are using rim brakes there is no such thing as a rim that will not wear out. The rim is essentially a brake rotor and given enough use it will wear down like a brake rotor. Folks who hardly use their brakes will not often experience a rim sidewall failure; however, they are not all that uncommon on touring bikes and tandems that often times deal with more weight and greater reliance on brakes, particularly in hilly or mountainous terrain.
Now, there are some rims that wear out faster and some -- like the early machined sidewall MAVIC rims -- that fail prematurely. I would have to know how many miles you have on your set of current rims before making a guess as to what may have led to your sidewall failure but the early MAVIC 217 SUP rims had all kinds of growing pains, including pre-mature sidewall failure, loose spoke furrels, and other annoying rattles.