A friend recently bought a new Specialized Sequoia (base model) and it seems like a very nice bike. He has, however been very dissapointed with the braking performance. The brake pads seem to keep collecting shards of metal from the rims, greatly affecting the stopping power. He has cleaned the rims and pads a few times, but it happens again. The shop where he bought the bike called Specialized who suggested that sand on the pads is causing it, but that doesn't really seem to fit what is happening. He is going to try KoolStop pads to see if it improves. If not, we are going to try swapping a wheel from a bike known to stop well to see if that works better, just to try and isolate whether the problem is with the pads or the rims. The bike has all stock parts, Alex AT400 rims, stock brakes and pads (not sure if they are Shimano or knockoff). We kind of suspect that the rims may be at fault, maybe softer than spec. Has anyone else experienced this kind of problem with these bikes?

BTW, we have no doubt that the LBS will make good on the problem, but we are curious as to what is causing it.