How long would you expect a set of wheels that are used with rim brakes and used all year round in all weathers to last?
I've just retired a set of Fulcrum racing 7's after 2 years and about 15,000 miles, I was thinking of sticking them on e bay with an honest description and just seeing how they do, but i am curious as how much life they may have left in them.
blimey, that's good going!
I have worn out rims on my commuter faster than the tyres! (though this is a rather hilly commute and rarely-washed bike with plenty of road grime, mind...)
it all depends what the braking surface is. I have some mavic ceramic coated rims that have lasted for years, whereas I have worn right through a pair of new but uncoated aluminium mavic rims in a weekend when biking in a granite terrane
would be interested if anyone has experience of DT rims for v brakes?
It all depends on how hard and how often you brake. A short commute on a gravelly cycle path could eat themif you are braking frequently. A long road commute in the country could be another extreme.
Look at how curved the braking surface is and whether the indicator is indicating wear.
When I last looked into this the consensus seemed to be the walls had to be at least 1mm thick and you can use one of [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/St-Steel-Dental-Lab-Iwanson-Calipers-for-Metal-CE-New-Ref-25-2000-/350580362408?pt=UK_BOI_Medical_Lab_Equipment_Medical_Equipment_Instruments_ET&hash=item51a037cca8 ]THESE[/url] to measure it. Different rims are, well, different obviously...
[url= http://bike-works.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/bike-rims-wear-out.html ]This[/url] is also quite useful...
currently using a set of open pros that i think are 5 years old? which is going to be c25k i think? might be closer to 30k?
A huge amount of this is in the vale of evesham so no hills and no braking to worry about.
In contrast i destroyed a set of mavic sunset %17s in 9 months, to the point that the sidewalls gave way. (can't remember if they were 117, 217 or 317) they were the good ones 10ish years ago.
Road bike?
I unfortunately retired some 1997 Campag Electron wheels this year after being clipped by a car in Wandsworth in June. They'd done at least 15,000 miles in all conditions. My 2006 Eurus have now gone to the cross bike after something like 20,000 miles including 3 RvV, 5 weeks in the Pyrenees, Alps and Dolomites, 5 Dragon Rides, hundreds of Sunday rides etc etc.
I've done wearing out 2 pairs of rims a year on my mtb in the early/ mid 90s and my approach now is that when I begin to feel uncomfortable about the level of wear I change them.
On a brighter note my Shamal Ultras were very nice on Sundays easy 100km.
Willy-wave-tastic!
😛
Depends entirely on usage as you'd expect!
I've seen decent quality rims (mavic open pro's) go in under 2,000 miles underneath a normal size guy, riding year round, on an immaculately maintained bike. Seen big big guys riding through filth for years, never a care in teh world toward cleaning rims/keeping on top of brake pads and get 8-10k over a few years.
I've *just* thrown a set of mavic 217xc rims away after about 15 years service. Rear was a freaking joke to be honest though, must have been less than 0.8mm wall thickness left in the mid part of them (dodgy as ****). They did 4 years of mountain biking, then 10 years of commuting/SS/abuse, no idea how many miles, anywhere between 6-15k, no idea!