Happily riding down the towpath today,not a care in the world,when all of a sudden the rear wheel locks up,I pull the longest skid since I was 14 and then I found this
IMG_20141216_161356 by philipdixon36, on Flickr
The rim split,scared the crap outta me. Quick bodge later and

IMG_20141216_160732 by philipdixon36, on Flickr

So,how many miles do you normally get out of a wheel rim,I know it depends on a lot of factors,but I figure this only has about 800 miles on it.They’re only cheapy planetx ones but I’d still have liked them to last longer than that. Not looking for advice on warranty claims,these are well past that.
Also,any recommendations for a replacement? 32 hole,shimano fitting rear road wheel,cheap is good.

Good work!
You were riding down the canal on a road bike?

Yep, its a kaffenback with some sturdy tyres on it,I ride it loads on the tow path. Also,its a pretty good path in all fairness.

pretty lucky – you occasionally hear of shards of metal slicing people’s legs clean off up a bit when it happens

when one of mine went it made a helluva bang. Very glad it was a. the back wheel and b. at slow speed. could have been *very* nasty otherwise…

Yeah,glad I was bimbling along the canal and not hurtling down a hill somewhere.

this only has about 800 miles on it

Holy crap, I’d expect a lot more than that. We used to use rim brakes on mountain bikes when I was a boy you know.

Got to be poor quality control hasn’t it?

Got to be poor quality control hasn’t it?

No, could be rubbish pads not changed enough or just riding in crappy conditions.

I used to get about 18months out of a rim on my commuter. That must have been something like 3500miles.

I noticed I got much worse wear in winter and it was quite dramatic if I didn’t keep on top of pad changes and checking them for embedded metal and grit.

What are your pads like? Is it even wear across the rim or is there a groove in it?

I haven’t long changed the pads as it happens. And the wear is pretty even across the surface. I’m going to give it a good once over tomorrow, check if there’s wear dimples on there, I haven’t thought to check before now due to the low mileage on it.
Also,its surprising how far you can get on a bodge like that,I rode 12 miles home like that,albeit a tad slower.