AlanW
Legendary Member
- Location
- Not to sure?
Starting from the beginning, three years ago I had a new built of wheels built with 32h Ultegra hubs, DB spokes and Open Pro Ceramic rims.
At first I was chuffed to conkers with them, but after discovering that the stopping power in the wet was next to useless, (long story) After 12 months trying to get the poor wet weather braking resolved I finally gave up and I had the ceramic rims replaced with the normal Open Pro ones.
But now the rims have started to wear, and wear really, really badly, not in the overall thickness, although of course this will be affected, and the rear rim especially as you would expect.
Putting a straight edge across the braking surface there is roughly a 1mm bow in the rear rim, on both sides? If I were to give a estimated mileage, I would say only around the 15k figure?
Any ideas why they should be wearing in this way??
Its also fair to add, that I regularly remove the brake blocks and de swarf them, and I also regularly sand them on a sandpaper on a flat surface. The rims are always washed after a dirty ride as well, and any excess crap removed from the blocks.
I have had rims wear down in the past but the wear has been uniform across the braking surface and I have certainly never ever seen anything like this before??
So here's my problem, to re lace the wheels with new Open Pro rims is going to cost me in the region of £160. That's £80 for two new rims, then the rest on spokes and nipples. But no cost to build them as I have a very good friend who is a demon wheel builder.
The other option is to buy another pair complete from Parker's (for example) at £239 delivered to the door. But they only list the CD version and given my experience with the ceramic ones, I am now very nervy to stray away from what I know works.
It has also been suggested that I should maybe look at the Ambrosio Excellight rims instead of the Open Pro rims? I am being told that the braking surface is thicker on them than it is on the Mavics?
I have also looked at the Easton EA50/EA70 wheels, but I don't really want to go down the factory built wheel for my daily ride to work wheels as I need the security of the extra spokes. Plus, I already have a pair of Kysruim Elites, Kysrium SL's and Kysrium ES's.
So.....any thoughts or words of wisdom please?
At first I was chuffed to conkers with them, but after discovering that the stopping power in the wet was next to useless, (long story) After 12 months trying to get the poor wet weather braking resolved I finally gave up and I had the ceramic rims replaced with the normal Open Pro ones.
But now the rims have started to wear, and wear really, really badly, not in the overall thickness, although of course this will be affected, and the rear rim especially as you would expect.
Putting a straight edge across the braking surface there is roughly a 1mm bow in the rear rim, on both sides? If I were to give a estimated mileage, I would say only around the 15k figure?
Any ideas why they should be wearing in this way??
Its also fair to add, that I regularly remove the brake blocks and de swarf them, and I also regularly sand them on a sandpaper on a flat surface. The rims are always washed after a dirty ride as well, and any excess crap removed from the blocks.
I have had rims wear down in the past but the wear has been uniform across the braking surface and I have certainly never ever seen anything like this before??
So here's my problem, to re lace the wheels with new Open Pro rims is going to cost me in the region of £160. That's £80 for two new rims, then the rest on spokes and nipples. But no cost to build them as I have a very good friend who is a demon wheel builder.
The other option is to buy another pair complete from Parker's (for example) at £239 delivered to the door. But they only list the CD version and given my experience with the ceramic ones, I am now very nervy to stray away from what I know works.
It has also been suggested that I should maybe look at the Ambrosio Excellight rims instead of the Open Pro rims? I am being told that the braking surface is thicker on them than it is on the Mavics?
I have also looked at the Easton EA50/EA70 wheels, but I don't really want to go down the factory built wheel for my daily ride to work wheels as I need the security of the extra spokes. Plus, I already have a pair of Kysruim Elites, Kysrium SL's and Kysrium ES's.

So.....any thoughts or words of wisdom please?