Originally Posted by djb

and you know, one other super important thing to do maintenance wise, to keep good braking power, is after a rain ride, immediately wipe the rims with a rag, to get all that gritty stuff off. When its wet, it comes off super fast, and I also sometimes wipe and check the pads themselves for any embedded grit or metal flakes, which happens sometimes.

keeping a really good "pad to rim" interface clean really helps with braking power, or at least what ive found with my bikes compared to friends bikes that they never do this.
just takes a minute to do
over time its worth it and your rims will be in better condition also.