Originally Posted by
clubman
Agreed.
It's irksome to hear people shrug the issue off as some kind of disc-brake conspiracy.
Sorry to be one of the irksome then.
As I posted a few times, I believe it's overblown, and while rims do wear out, it's not a primary factor in limiting overall wheel life.
Rims have always worn to an extent, and we all accepted the possibility of rim wear being a problem for an otherwise good wheel because we knew that other things would generally kill the wheel before that happened.]
FWIW - I ride very light tubular rims (wall thickness >1mm new) and have never given a thought to rim wear, despite many thousands of all weather miles. Then again, brake usage per mile on the open road is very low.
OTOH - my commuter went 25,000 all weather urban miles, with lots of brake use. It did reach the point where I knew I was about to wear out my first rim (ever, in 50 years). However, despite being very close to the end, a kind lady spared me the worries with a gentle tap of her bumper.