Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Aluminium embedded in brake blocks ?

ok, what causes it, bad rims or brake blocks/pads that are too abrasive, or both.
Bad weather and rain is obviously a factor here, but on my geared bikes i have not experienced this problem.
I did a check on the bike after a really wet ride, stripped out the wheels etc and noticed large deposits of rim aluminum embedded in the blocks and aluminium shards deposited around the calipers.

When i say wet, i mean WET ride. I emptied maybe 1/4 pint of water out of each rim after deflating the tyres and removing part of the tyre.

so, what can be done to combat this ?
would ceramic rims be immune ?
would softer pads be better ?

or, is it just crap rims ?

sounds like crap rims, i've never seen a rim that was rough enough to leave shards in your brake pads

sand or other crap gets in your pads, which galls up Al, which gets hot and galls up more Al. Rim quality has very little to do with it unless your rims are totally junk.

Shimano pads were making glitter out of my $1200 ksyriums, rain or shine. I've since switched to kool-stop salmon pads, even in dry weather, and have never looked back. No shredded rims, and great stopping in any weather. Plus, they have that triangular lip that scrapes muck off the rim before it makes full contact, so it's automatically toed in.


http://www.koolstop.com/brakes/duratype.gif

I vote for ****ty pads as well. Had one do this, switched to a better pad and the problem went away.

yes, low-quality pads will affect it slightly, but it happens with all rims.

during this time of year we're doing a lot of complete overhauls on high-end bikes and every one involves taking off the brake pads, picking the tiny specks of aluminum out of them, cleaning them, then sanding them even (this is all if they're worth keeping).

just keep your rims and pads clean and inspect both every once in a while. not much more that you can do.

aside from crappy pads, some rims are worse than others with this problem.

Thanks for the quick replies guys.
Because I'm sorta new to this fixed game, it seemed i was pretty heavy on the brakes for the first 100 or so miles. Well, I could have put it down to that, and i did the first time, but since doing the 500th mile or so, possibly more, I know i have eased up on the pads, so I guess its probably a combination of whats being suggested here.

I'm going to sand them flat though, something i didn't think to do, a good tip that.
Also, I'm going to try different blocks too to see i that makes any change.

I still might go with ceramic mavic rims and high quality blocks on some good hubs. I know that the extra bling is pointless for wet and wintery rides, but it sure seems practical.

Just need a damn good UK wheelbuilder to assemble em.

But, for now, great advice, I'm grateful for it. Thanks.

I clean the pads on my bikes every 100 miles or so of use. I have had DT Swiss RR1.1s, Salsa DelgadoXs Mavic Open Pros and others all leave small pcs of metal in the pads...just go in there with an exacto or fine tweezers and dig them out. Plus clean your rims.

really, salmon pads will cure all of these ills. No more sanding/cleaning/worry of ceramic rims (which will eat pads soooooo fast)

Certain pads are infamous for this, namely older Campagnolo and certain flavors of shimano pads. Here's a good article on the Shimano pads:

http://www.chainreaction.com/brakeshoes.htm


just keep your rims and pads clean and inspect both every once in a while. not much more that you can do.
There's not much more that you can do except replace them with a better designed brake pad. You can guess which ones I'm going to recommend.

Kool stops and we're done.

+1 on the kool-stop

http://www.motherloom.com/images/Chinook-Salmon-Pil.jpg

Chinook salmon FTW!

I've just ordered some.