Hey

My bike had crappy brakes and then one day, all this black rubber started smearing onto my rims. I got new pads (Eagle 2's) and the bike person told me to clean awaay the rubber smudges on my bike using steel wool. Does that work, or would that take the rust proof part off the rim and make it vulnerable to rust.Should I use the steel wool, or should I use something else to clean it off, without destroying the rim. Also, I'm presuming that it would scratch the rim alot as well. The salesman said that if I didn't take the rubber smudge off, a lot of noise would result, as I already had alot of squeaking going on, when I braked. By the way, I have v brakes.... What should I do??

Do you have ceramic rims? There's likely no rust-proofing on your rims as your rims are probably made of aluminum. However, if you have ceramic rims then it might not be a good idea to hit it with the steel-wool.

I dont know, I think I got alloy rims (i have cheap bike), but I don't know what type of allow they are. Well anyways, I really need to know this because, I dont want to destroy my rims. Scratches are fine....but rusty rims aren't. Any body know how to clean off the rubber residue from crappy pads? Anyone?!

when they say alloy, they mean aluminum. steel wool to your hearts desire

I thought alloy was steel?

rust is fine on the rims...eventually they will wear off when you brake......just like cars

Alloy means any combination of more than one metal "mixed" together, not specifically applying to any one type of metal. Aluminum alloy means not pure aluminum, because it wouldn't be strong enough, so there are different grades, 7000 series being the top, that I know of (6061 is common for bike use now). The higher the number, the less aluminum, but lighter and stronger, supposedly. CrMo (4130) is steel blended with Chromium Molybdenum, for better strength, HiTen or hi tensile (1020) is just plain old steel, etc. I know that there are other grades that are and have been used for frame building, etc., they are just escaping me right now.

So the term "alloy" is just a very general (but popular) term for metals mixed together for form one metal, per say. The term is also often wrongly used in automotive contexts, i.e. I've seen car dealership ads claiming their car has alloy rims, but turn out to be just chrome plated steel, where in this case it would apply to aluminum alloy.

Less confused now? I'm sure you have aluminum rims, they are aluminum on top, underneath, and all around...

Jessica

Wow....Thanks a WHOLE LOT guys, and Jessica, thanks for the science section.

use rubbing alcohol does that not work as well?

I buy those green Scotchbrite pads used for cleaning pots and pans. I shove one between the brake pad and the rim, then ride down the street and back for about a minute. Then swap it over to the other side.

Cleans up right up!

L8R

Why would the bike shop person suggest steel wool? That's ridiculous! It will scratch your rims badly. Don't use steel wool! Use rubbing alcohol instead. I used it on my rims and it works great. There's a topic about rim cleaning further down the MTB forum list. Here's a link: Cleaning the rims

it didnt actually scratch up my rims, but it took a lot of work and sore arms to do it
Ill use rubbing alcohol nex time...

By the way...this is off topic, but how come when I try to choose an avatar, it is either ALWAYS "Do not choose an avatar" or "Choose a custom Avatar"? I WANT TO USE AN AVATAR THAT COMES WITH SITE!

I could never get it to work, either.

hoolligan r u the one with the ccm revenge?

yes....
and I got eagle 2s...so that the brakes dont suck that bad no more..