Originally Posted by
FastJake
Rims take a LONG time to wear out. Likely you will sell the bike, it will get stolen, or the rim will die in a crash/pothole before you actually wear out the brake track.
My experience is that even if wet-weather riding is minimized the rims only last for 50,000 miles or so and therefore do require periodic replacement. The cost isn't too great, but there is significant time/effort involved in changing out the rim and retruing the wheel.