joint seams on road wheels

Was just getting the good road bike prepped for first ride of the year tomorrow and noticed for the first time the join seams on the wheel. Braking surfaces are nice and smooth and wheels have only seen a thousand miles. Presume this is normal and I just haven’t noticed it before !!

What’s normal? Rims always have joins – either they’re pinned, or welded, with the seam machined down or not.

Ben, I dunno what’s normal, but you do 🙂 I was just surprised to see a seam I hadn’t noticed in the yr or so of having the bike (summer road only). Wheels are Giant P-SL1.

I think you have reassured me sufficiently for a sunny blast round strathaven and area in a few hrs though, appreciated.

If you think about it, the tension of the spokes is pulling the seam closed. The only time a seam is an issue is if it’s not very neat – you can get an edge which catches the brake blocks, making a judder when you brake.

Rims also sometimes have grooves around them – they’re wear indicators, when the groove disappears you need to replace the rim.

Rims also sometimes have grooves around them – they’re wear indicators

Or machined in Dots, I have a set of Xero wheels with these instean of the grooves.

Yup. The contrary is that, if the rims doesn’t have a groove from new, and then develops a groove, you need to replace the rims with some urgency.

Thanks all