Many of you will remember, and all of you can relate to Keith Bontrager's maxim from the late '80s:
Light Strong Inexpensive: Pick Two It works to some extent with all bike parts, but even IT can't come to the rescue when the thing is just too light. Do you know the thickness of the braking surface on a typical road rim? It's about 1.2mm. Some are 1.1. That's what fails when rims wear out and blow out. Well...1.1 or 1.2mm looks like nothing, which you consider the abrasion they're subject to and can't possibly avoid. (Disc brakes have their own set of problems, so let's stay on track.) It used to be common practice to inspect brake pads AND rims, but raise you hand if you can remember the last time you did that. How much should a non-racing 700c rim weigh? How thick should the braking surface be, and how tall? How wide should it be? Reasonable answers, kind of, could be: Weight: 500g. Thickness of braking surface: 2.5mm. Height: 11mm. Width: 24mm. But a rim with those specs would weigh about 800g. I believe this because we're having a NOBS rim made to our specs, and it has 1.6mm braking surface, 10.5mm brake surface height, is 25.4 (1) mm wide, and weighs about 650g. It's wider than 24, but way thinner than 2.5, and the 10.5<11. I think this is a totally reasonable rim, in every way. I wanted 2mm of braking surface, but that would have meant zero buyers, so we settled on the world-record 1.6, bringing the weight down to a near world record 650g, and even though I think it's a perfectly fantastic rim for general nonracing use---touring, trails, commuting, all purpose riding when there's not a timer or a finish line with a banner---I believe we'll end up selling it mostly to guys who weigh 300 pounds and are sick and tired of wheel problems...because most riders like the idea of stout stuff, but don't really want the weight that comes with it. We'll continue to offer other rims....but this new rim will be the way to go when you truly, really, want a durable rim and wheel. (Anyway....the new stouty won't be available for many months). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
