On my road bike ('86 centurion) which had an unknown mileage put on the rims before me and probably 4k miles by me I've started wondering about the life of the rims. They don't have a wear groove or wear bar or anything and I really don't know what kind of thickness I would want if I did measure them so I haven't bothered with that yet.

Most of my miles are in dry weather, and when I end up in the rain (doesn't really rain here that much ) I make an effort to rinse off the pads and rim when I get home to minimize "grit wear". I don't see any noticeable dip where the brake pad would've worn away the rim. I can certainly see that it's well worn but not to any extent past the scratching and loss of color on the surface. FWIW they're unmachined Matrix Titan rims.

Is there some sort of standard width considered a safe minimum? Can I safely wait until it appears more worn and there is some sort of visual "dip" from the brake pad? I realize the second one isn't really a straight forward question, but I had to ask.

I can't say exactly how thick the rim should be. Here is a gadget that will get over the bead and will measure the thickness accurately enough. It is called a spring guage, not expensive, accurate to 0.1mm from jewellery tool suppliers. Useful for measuring any other small things.

You can compare your rim with others. My guess is I would be worried if the rim is less than 0.5mm thick!

one bump, then it can die.

Thanks for the help Akadis, I think my micrometer will fit so I won't have to go out and buy more tools. Or is it get to go out and buy?

So, anyone have any numbers or methods for doing this?