Originally Posted by
Kontact
I wasn't suggesting rubber pads prevent rim wear. I was only suggesting that pad ablation is the trade-off that prevents the pad/rim contact from getting hot enough to lose friction.
Wearing away rubber from the surface of a brake pad seems to be a very inefficient way to dissipate heat. Unless you're scrubbing away a bunch of material, but then the pad would not last long at all. The entire thermal capacity of a typical rim brake pad is (very roughly) 12 Joules per Kelvin.
Or is this trade-off process you refer to this:
- pad surface gets soft from heat
- soft pad material gets scrubbed away (ablated)
- harder pad material contacts rim
- repeat