Originally Posted by
Marylandnewbie
One lesson I learned the hard way is to clean your rims fairly often if you ride a lot. Road grime on rims and brake pads wears out the rim making it thin enough you will start to get cracks around the eyelets. I went through my first Salsa Delgado rim in less than a year because I didn't know that. With more religious cleaning I can get 5-6K miles or more.
Grit on the pads and rim will certainly wear out the braking surface of the rim more quickly. But that's on the sides of the rim, not where the eyelets are located. When my rims wear out from braking the sides first become noticeably concave, then I get some pulsing when braking, and, if I ignore that warning, a portion of the side of the rim is broken free by the pressure from the tire bead. But I've never seen cracks near the eyelets due to a thinned brake track.