Lifespan of carbon rim brake wheels

[JMeinholdt]

I know that rim brake wheels wear out and carbon is no exception to this. I've seen lots of well used carbon rim brake wheels for sale on eBay and the like that are significantly grooved.

However, I decided to check on my carbon wheels today for a video review of them and noticed that there's virtually no wear on the brake track after more than 6,000 miles (~10,000km). I use them rain or shine (though 99% shine, if I'm honest). I don't typically have long descents, but I did take them with me out to Colorado last month and did some long, technical descents on them where I had to grab quite a bit of brake.

At the rate of wear, I would expect 20-30,000+ miles out of these. Is that the norm?

What's your experience?

If you're interested in the video, it's here: https://youtu.be/aX7d68aqBC8

[LouisN]

Your wheels need truing .
I think they last longer than alloy wheels.
I have two sets with at least 20 000 km's and I'll keep on using them for a few years.
I bought a used ENVE wheelset two weeks ago. The seller said the rims were toast because of the rim brake surface. The wheels were approx. 7-8 years old. When I received the wheels I was astonished: The rims were mint !! I would ride these for another 20 000 km's easily !!
Disclaimer: I use soft generic blue brake pads. They wear fast. I need to change them once or twice per year, and I don't ride long hills. But they're gentle on rim surfaces.
My 2 cents.
Louis

[Mr.Gib]

it seems the latest generation of carbon brake tracks are very durable. If they are only used in the dry with gentle enough pads, there will be extremely little wearing down of the surface. I think I agree with the point above that carbon rims can last at least as long as alloy rims. Assuming dry weather conditions, the biggest factor aside from terrain will be the size of the rider. 30,000 km seems quite reasonable. All bets are off if you ride in wet grit and grime with rim brakes.

[nickf]

My 5 year old Bontrager wheels still look great. Granted they have lived most of their life in Florida. Let's see how they hold up in the Carolina mountains. I know these older Bontrager wheels have 3k carbon under the UD braking surface. If you started to see 3k weave then the brake tracks were done. My latest set of farsports wheels has the HMX/ATA braking surface, phenomenal stopping power and modulation. I have done many long steep descents on them and they visually show no wear whatsoever. Things have improved a lot over the years.

[RyanH]

My first carbon rims, Reynolds DV46's from 2010, I put around 20K miles on them and when I sold them, they did not have a groove. I have yet to wear through a set of rims.

[AJS914]

I have a set of Farsports - the classic series. I'm using Campagnolo red pads which I think are on the softer side. My brake tracks hardly look worn at all after about 8,000 miles. I've only been caught in the rain a couple of times so far so most of my rides are dry.

[warthog101]

Your wheels need truing .
I think they last longer than alloy wheels.
I have two sets with at least 20 000 km's and I'll keep on using them for a few years.
I bought a used ENVE wheelset two weeks ago. The seller said the rims were toast because of the rim brake surface. The wheels were approx. 7-8 years old. When I received the wheels I was astonished: The rims were mint !! I would ride these for another 20 000 km's easily !!
Disclaimer: I use soft generic blue brake pads. They wear fast. I need to change them once or twice per year, and I don't ride long hills. But they're gentle on rim surfaces.
My 2 cents.
Louis

What you say about the pads makes sense.
Are they these?

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mob ... prod155640

I have a set on the bike running my 50mm primes. Seem good.

[ico]

I have Corima tubular wheels with at least 80 000+ km's on, surprisingly no signs of excessice wear, just nothing.. I ride mostly flat to rolling terrain, so not much braking. I've used many types of brake pads from original Corima, to Yellow Swissstop and now Dura Ace and not a sigle problem at all.

[alcatraz]

On flats they last a human lifetime.

[LouisN]

What you say about the pads makes sense.
Are they these?

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mob ... prod155640

I have a set on the bike running my 50mm primes. Seem good.

Yup.

Louis

[Stueys]

I've a set of Gen 1 Enve 4.5's that I've used for the last 5 years, no visible wear on the rims that I can discern. I only really use them in the dry (stopping requires a bit more planning in the wet...) and have always used the Enve OE brake pads which seem to wear pretty fast so I'm assuming are quite soft.

[warthog101]

Yup.

Louis

Thanks

[MikeD]

Isn't cracking at the spoke holes a problem with carbon rims? I only use aluminum, but all my rims have failed at the spoke holes except for one mountain bike rim where I wore down the sidewalls. I hardly ever ride in wet conditions so sidewalls don't wear.


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[JMeinholdt]

I'm glad to hear so many have really solid experience with carbon rim brake wheelsets. I guess I've either just been unnecessarily paranoid about it, or it's been made to be a bigger issue than it really is. Or maybe a combination of both.

I guess this reinforces to me that a "training" wheelset is unnecessary and I'm good to keep riding my carbon hoops full time like I have been.

[Miller]

Isn't cracking at the spoke holes a problem with carbon rims? I only use aluminum, but all my rims have failed at the spoke holes except for one mountain bike rim where I wore down the sidewalls. I hardly ever ride in wet conditions so sidewalls don't wear.

No, I don't think so. Carbon is pretty tough. I do have a carbon rear wheel hanging up in the garage because a spoke has pulled through the rim... but I had to stick my foot in the wheel like a total idiot to make that happen.