filipw1990

Hey,

I installed new WH-R501 wheels with Claris brake pads, and I am not sure if everything is OK.

Is this normal that even after short trip brake pads are covered with thin "aluminium gray" coat? Something like metallic mist on surface.

I also found some metal fillings in brake pads, and few very small surface looses on rim. Is this normal in new wheels?

I picked up metal fillings, cleaned brake pads and rims, but during braking I still can hear quiet noise. Maybe brake pads are too hard?

maartendc

Are you sure it is not just road dust?

Typically the area around my brake calipers gets coated in whatever dust / road dirt I happened to ride through. In dry conditions, this is a fine "mist" of particles, although it is usually brown, not metallic.

Atlas Shrugged

Here we go again!

filipw1990

It is shiny "metallic" thin coat on pads braking surface.

canklecat

Yup, that's normal wear with that kind of rim. I've seen the same thing on my hybrids with bare aluminum alloy rims. It's less noticeable on my older road bikes with anodized rims (older Araya CTL-370 and Wolber Alpine).

And as the poster above noted, it's also accumulated road debris. Depends on activity in your area. Lots of construction along a couple of my usual routes, so it's common to see more debris coating the rims and brake pads. Ditto areas with lots of gravel roads. That stuff can blow a good distance and cover adjacent paved roads, especially chipseal.

It seems more noticeable with tires that have any kind of tread pattern, rather than slicks. My hybrids have chevron and file tread patterns that pick up and kick up a lot of road debris that covers the rims and brake pads. Occasionally I'll use a scrubbing pad with isopropyl alcohol to clean 'em off, or one of those mildly abrasive sponges used for dry marker boards, when there's just a mild coating of schmumph on the rims and pads.

When it's bad enough and there's gunk embedded in the pads, you can use a metal file, heavy duty nail file (I use metal, not emery boards), or sandpaper (I avoid sandpaper since some kinds can embed grit in the pads) to clean up and square off the pads. There are YouTube videos showing this technique, including some glimpses of pro mechanics behind the scenes at races. I've even used picks and tweezers to pick out embedded shards of metal.

cthenn

Some form of metal filings/shavings/a metallic sheen/etc. is pretty typical of most aluminum wheels. Personally I hate Shimano pads, they seem too hard and unforgiving, and seem to accumulate grit in them too easily, whereas every time I would brake, it would basically sound like metal on metal grinding. I am a much bigger fan of Kool-Stop pads, they are much quieter and softer, but not so soft that they require overly-frequent changing. As an O/T aside, for carbon rim brakes, I've found Reynolds cryo-blue to be the best (of those I've tried).