On 3/12/2019 6:46 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
I guess we could do a poll. How many here have had a road bike rim fail
by having the brakes eat through it?

I have, /while riding/, on my commuter rear rim. Fortunately it was on
the rear rim at low(ish) speed riding in a straight line. Contributing
factors are much rainy riding in stop-and-go traffic and negligence to
the point of stupid.

The latter is the main reason why I think you'll find few who have
experienced this /while riding/. Most of us (and even I, eventually)
are smart enough to replace badly worn rims.

If you're willing to count "replacement after wear to the point that
there was a real risk of spontaneous collapse" as failure, then I've had
5-6 failures, but only one while riding. Even I can learn from such
mistakes.

Note that I've never had a non-commuter rim come even close to such
wear; my other bikes have a vastly higher mileage-to-brake-use ratio, as
I suspect do most of us - I don't generally ride across the center of
town in traffic for pleasure/recreation.

Mark J.