Originally Posted by
spectastic
Also, is it true that you should change brake pads when you switch between carbon and aluminum wheels? my friend told me you don't want the aluminum particles to go into the carbon wheel brake pads, which doesn't really make any sense to me, because the brake lining on the wheel has nothing to do with what the wheel is made of.
Brake pads used with aluminum brake tracks can, and do, pick up little shards of aluminum. These shards will scratch the cf brake tracks causing excessive wear.
Consequently some people recommend changing pads. Personally I use yellow swiss stop pads, and keep them on when I change from an aluminum training wheel to a carbon fiber wheel. Visual inspection of the pads to check for shards is enough in my experience. If you want to be more anal, a light going over with a file, or sand paper in addition to the visual inspection.