|   How can you tell if your rims are too worn? | SF Gator
Oct 10, 2001 5:03 PM | | Is there a minimum wall thickness or some other benchmark to determine if a rim has seen its last trail? (note: 517s) |
| If you are lucky enough to get a good build... | Metroid
Oct 11, 2001 6:10 AM | | and don't taco the wheel first, you can ride the wheel until the sidewalls wear through. |
| sometimes hard to tell... | toad
Oct 11, 2001 7:56 AM | | Aside from a total failure of the wheel it's sometimes hard to tell when a wheel has seen it's last day. One visible indication is usually very small cracks on the braking surface. Normally the cracks will be running parallel to the rim beed and can be easily missed. So look carefully. Also, if the braking surface has a extremely concaved shape it's probly time to look for a new one (some rim manufacturers design a slight amount of concavity into the sides to help keep the brake pads from slipping off of the rim). As far as material thickness goes, I 've never heard of a minimum thickness to look for. Just use your common sense I quess... |
| the finger test | jw25
Oct 11, 2001 11:12 AM | | You can feel concavity pretty easily, just by gripping the sidewalls of the rim between your fingers. Of course, all that tells you is that the rims are worn, not how worn. I've yet to see any specific measurements, aside from some newer rims with a groove in them. You replace the rim when the groove wears away.
Basically, you can ride them until the sidewall peels off, or they make you worry too much. I was thinking about replacing my rear, which is pretty grooved and getting concave, but then I felt a friend's rim (same model), and his is seriously worn. It's visible to the naked eye just how worn it is, so I calmed down.
The 517's are pretty thin, though, so it might be worth a trip to a good shop for a second opinion. When the sidewalls peel off, you get a long, sharp piece of aluminum spinning around pretty close to important body parts, so it's best to replace them before that happens. |
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