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Old 10-14-15 | 10:26 PM
  #8  
FBinNY
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Joined: Apr 2009
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From: New Rochelle, NY

Bikes: too many bikes from 1967 10s (5x2)Frejus to a Sumitomo Ti/Chorus aluminum 10s (10x2), plus one non-susp mtn bike I use as my commuter

You can't predict brake track wear by miles.

My tubular tire road bike is ridden on open roads and can see miles upon miles without me touching my brakes. If I hink back, I can remember 100 miles where I used the brakes fewer then 5 times total (if that). Those rims stat out only 1mm thick, and don't have much to give up, yet brake track wear is a total non issue.

OTOH- my commuter sees tons of brake use, including more hard stops in an hour than the road bike might see in a week of touring, so I see plenty of brake track wear. The last rims go to where failure would have been soon, but a T-bone crash put both out of their misery just in the nick of time (I was OK).

As a rough rule, I'd allow rims to wear about 1mm or roughly 1/2 the original thickness before worrying. But a realistic guideline, even if you measure precisely, is impossible, because a major factor is the "hoop stress" caused by tire pressure, That's proportional to the Pressure X the tire width, and so can vary tremendously rider to rider.

When I expected that my commuter's rims were near the end, I used a "safety method", pumping tires to 15-10% above riding pressure, then bled them off before riding. My theory was that if they held at 15% higher, that would be a safety margin when riding, and if all worked as intended, the failure (if it happened) would be when pumping rather than riding. Had it not been for an inattentive driver, I might have been able to report on whether my idea worked.
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