Like everybody else, I am glad you are OK. Next to a fork failure, a rim blowout is perhaps the worst mechanical failure.
If you use your rear brake for slowing, you'll wear out rear rims in quick succession. Rear rims collect much more road grit than front ones (spray from front wheel). The grit works like a very effective abrasive, and will wear through your rim quickly. It's easy to check whether this is the culprit: Take a hacksaw and cut your rim in half in one of the places where it still is intact. Clean off the burrs with a file. You will see how much material there was initially by looking at the places where the brake blocks did not touch. Compare that to the brake track. You also should be able to see any gouges from sharp stones, as others have suggested. For every rider, it is a good practice to check rim wear from time to time. Some newer rims have built-in marks. Once these disappear, you should replace the rim. Also, most rims start bulging outward when they get seriously thin. You can see that with calipers. If the sides of your rim no longer are parallel, then the rim is getting dangerously thin. Overheating rims doesn't appear to be a problem. You tire will melt before you damage the rim, and blow off. (That is very dangerous, but the tire being the weak link, the rim is unlikely to explode from overheating.) Jan Heine Editor Bicycle Quarterly http://www.bikequarterly.com Follow our blog at http://janheine.wordpress.com/ -- 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.
