Bicycle Mechanics - Take care of your braking surface and pads

At least once a week and after a wet ride I'll; Take a small piece of cotton rag, wet with rubbing alcohol, and apply with a little pressure to the braking surface of my front wheel while I push the bike, getting at least 3 revolutions of the wheel, switch sides, then do the back wheel, both sides.
You'll see what I mean when you look at the rag after cleaning the braking surface.

Then I'll pull the wheel off the bike. Take a pin and pick out slivers of aluminum from brake pad surface, and using a 150 grit or finer sand paper, lightly scuff the pads and wipe with the cotton/alcohol cloth.

It takes all of 10 minutes total and my pads have over 5000 miles and are still in good condition and the wheel braking surface is in great shape.

The alternative is do nothing. The results are usually; Pads glaze up and don't stop effectively and start to squeel. The small slivers of aluminum start to pit out the braking surface of the wheel and cut some nasty grooves.

I usually use an old and not too abrasive scotch brite pad on the brake tracks every week or so. And of course scuff up the pads too.

If the rim has metal slivers coming off it, then that is a clear sign that it is about time to replace the rims. Normal old water will work on the rims, and for the pads a fine number peice of sand paper should work, if they are disc brakes take rotors and pads off and boil them in water.

i very rarely maintain my brakes, and have yet to get any squeal, and the only thing that ever ground into my wheel was a small rock that somehow got itself lodged in there during my morning commute....once i got to a safe spot to stop, It was quickly removed with the help of my trusy leatherman.

At least once a week and after a wet ride I'll; Take a small piece of cotton rag, wet with rubbing alcohol, and apply with a little pressure to the braking surface of my front wheel while I push the bike, getting at least 3 revolutions of the wheel, switch sides, then do the back wheel, both sides.
You'll see what I mean when you look at the rag after cleaning the braking surface.

Then I'll pull the wheel off the bike. Take a pin and pick out slivers of aluminum from brake pad surface, and using a 150 grit or finer sand paper, lightly scuff the pads and wipe with the cotton/alcohol cloth.

It takes all of 10 minutes total and my pads have over 5000 miles and are still in good condition and the wheel braking surface is in great shape.

The alternative is do nothing. The results are usually; Pads glaze up and don't stop effectively and start to squeel. The small slivers of aluminum start to pit out the braking surface of the wheel and cut some nasty grooves.

You are the only other person besides myself that I have heard about that has had metal slivers in the brake pads.
Just recently, I have started having metal slivers come off the wheel and embed in the brake pads (rear only). The noise that it makes when the brakes are applied is loud enough (metal to metal) that other riders around me can hear it.
I have to clean or replace the pads about every 100 miles. The machined brake surface on the rear wheel has roughness on it where the front is very smooth. The brakes are Shimano Ultegra and the wheels are Velomax Circuit. I asked a couple of different bike mechanics about this and one of them said that the low end Velomax wheels were the problem. Another said that it was not unusual to have some metal slivers in the pads-Mine has a lot. The bike has about 1500 miles and my concern is if the metal to metal action keeps happening, will the wheel eventually wear through?

rims should not be killing pads like that...you should take that up with Velomax, or show it to the place you bought it at and have them deal with it.

I'm running anodized aluminum rims with v-brakes and have ahd no such issue, and i have over 3,000mi on my bike...only time i had aluminum in my pads was from that rock shaving the metal off my rim, and the shavings finding their way onto the pad.

Maybe what is happening is your rim ahd some rough spots that got onto your pads...now those spots are grinding your ris, causing this to go on....maybe you could try to use some 1000grit wet-or-dry and sand the roughness out of them. I'm not sure how well it would work, or if it would affect braking any, but if you have no luck elsewhere it might be worth a shot. just remeber to sand along the grain.