For those that have a nice set of carbon race wheels, but run alloy clinchers on non-race days…do you swap your pads over, and is it a PITA?

I swap my pads over and it takes about 5-10 mins

Yes. Front are a bit of a pain but not that bad. Rear is easy. Then have to adjust the brakes for different rims and pads. Takes a few minutes. I try and be reasonably disciplined and do it when I get back after a race so the bike is ready to go train on with minimal fuss.

Read that alloy stuff collects in the brake pads and can trash carbon rims. Not sure how much truth there is in that but I’m not risking a grands worth of wheel to put it to the test!

Cheers, last point makes sense MrB…

I do it, bit of a pain but worth it. As per blobby’s point, you will see bits of Al embedded in the Al brake pads, clamping these against your carbon rims is not a great idea. Plus, depending on the exact type of carbon pad used, they really don’t work well on Al rims, and vice versa…

Swiss stop pads on for carbon rims, if you’re racing the bike should have a little check over anyway so changing stuff over doesn’t add much time to this.

Not sure how much truth there is in that but I’m not risking a grands worth of wheel to put it to the test!

Quite a lot of truth in it. I know my first season on carbon rims (when they were all new and exciting) resulted in a small but extremely expensive number of trashed rims from swapping wheels without a care in the world……

But then you can get exactly the same thing from picking up road debris with aluminium rims. I’ve done an open pro with a piece of metal that got jammed in the pad.

Read that alloy stuff collects in the brake pads and can trash carbon rims

It’s true, just take a look at them, they don’t sparkle when they are new 🙂