Using a brake on a non-machined rim

Ignore this comment. I am a cretin.

prototype know that that BLB sell wheel sets with velocty rims for around £200 but i haven;t had a chance to go back recently to ask about them - does anyone know if they do a 'mix and match' with braking surfaces.

BLB can definitely do a mix and match. I'm not sure what choice of hubs you'd have around the 200 mark though.

they are the ambrosia/formula hubs, but definitely can get fr machined and rear normal, as a pair.

Thanks Dogs. I bow to your superior knowledge once more.

rims come without rim tape as well ;) , so add £5.

For running a brake on a non-machined rim, the best thing to do is to use cork-type pads, which are originally meant for carbon rims. You can buy these as inserts for regular shimano or campag types cartridge pads. They don't tend squeal like a moaning whore like rubber pads do, plus they don't seem to mark the rim as badly too...but of course there will still be marking! The only downside is that they can wear down pretty quick...makes for a good excuse to try and stop using your brake though.

This is all nonsense! Unless the rim is actually designed not to be with used with rim brakes, it doesn't matter whether the sidewalls are machined or not. If you use rim brakes on a rim with non-silver anodised sidewalls, the coloured anodising on the sidewallls will wear away, it's normal.
As already said, machined rims are a relatively recent thing.

Hey Guys/Girls,
After reading this thread I went out to test my new bike out, which had full DeepV rims front and back with a newly added front brake. I felt that with the paint on the rim it seemed to jump a bit when a lot of pressure was applied, plus it left the horrible black marks around the rim.

The bike was second hand, so also had a bit of a gash that was ripping chunks out of my brake pads, so I decided to file it down...

Took me a good few hours, first using a file to expose the metal, then sanding to clean it up a bit. The finish looks fine and I find the brake a lot less jarring now (although I'm going to be trying to use that as little as possible).

I've attached an image of the finished result for anyone who's planning on doing the same thing.

P.s. Is it worth treating the metal in some way?

1 Attachment

first using a file to expose to expose the metal

Enjoy your unsafe rim for the week or two before it fails.

So as long as I don't mind the black marks around my front rim (it's red everywhere else) I can just ignore the fact that it's happening, as the black and the red will both disappear eventually leaving me some shiny silver?

That green wheel you've filed looks very neat by the way... nee idea if what you've done is a good idea or not though.

So as long as I don't mind the black marks around my front rim (it's red everywhere else) I can just ignore the fact that it's happening, as the black and the red will both disappear eventually leaving me some shiny silver?

Just leave it. Don't file it!

good. cheers man.

as long as you didnt take any metal off i cant see how its an different to using a brake to do the same job and even if you did take some of the metal off then you have just shortened the life of your rim a little i mean i woudlnt have filed it but, now you have so what ever

hang on was it painted? what shitty rim is painted i thought they were all anodised apart from those guys at create rolling out top of the range painted rims

Well I don't think my rim is fucked, as someone mentioned, I
might have shortened the life slightly etc. But I only used the file quite gently to take the top surface of paint off, the final finish was done with sand paper!

If it does fail, I'll post back warning to never do this, but I don't believe it's much of an issue.